Human Order of Guardians & Mimpossible: Black Sheep
by MIMitationBalance
Summary: From the Lights of Time emerges a rageful enemy hellbent on taking down Jackie and Mimic. On their first encounter together, the two must go back to back to fight down an enemy who makes things VERY personal. With a plethora of new characters and a worldwide chase, see the Guardians and the Descendants work together to face a threat that pressures their alliance with HOG and Jackie
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue-Timing is Everything**

_The pathetic beast smells like it hadn't showered in months. _He thought as he waited in the night for his, very late, companion. The worst part was that he couldn't even see him yet. The smell of wet dog and dried blood just wafted in on the weak breeze. The hulking creature loped into the clearing in the pine trees, panting small clouds in the chilled midnight air.

"You're late." he snipped, the slight irritation not showing on his hardened face.

"I had to consider your offer...carefully" he growled out.

"What is there to consider, shaggy dog, you get your prize." the youth bit back.

"My prey is the fee, but will I enjoy this crazy plan of yours?...pup." the canine barked.

His next words were drowned out by a howl as the smell of burning fur assaulted his keen nose. The boy withdrew a smoking fist from his stomach and his eyes twitched in fury.

"You are here to obey, like a good dog does! I've met your price which means I bought you, your teeth, your claws but not your disgusting tongue! You will do exactly as I tell you and if not I will make you as extinct as the howling idiots you're descended from!"

The forest exploded in a blast of light and heat before simmering down to the young man and the beast. The boy was breathing heavily almost to the point of growling himself. His shoulders rose and fell in time with the last flickering flames.

"I assure you, there will be plenty for you to enjoy. She will be so happy to see you again." he recomposed calmly, voice dripping in sardonic flavor.

"Your fake fire doesn't frighten me. I've faced hotter than you." the beast slumped slightly.

The boy laughed to the night sky. It rattled into the dark and the beast bristled at the sound. He had been told his whole life that he would only ever be half as strong, half as powerful, never the complete package. But it wasn't his fault they said. It wasn't a curse they said. No being half at all was the curse. But now he had someone to blame.

"Don't worry, I'm bringing the heat." he chuckled, cocky as a fresh flamed phoenix. The anger in his chest bubbled and boiled.

"As long as you keep being angry, that is." the monster quipped. They boy's semblance of a smile dropped to its normal pursed line.

"We had best be going before someone calls in the police to investigate your senseless howling."

"Of course." was the reply, "I hear you came into an interesting trinket."

"You're too ancient, dog. I stole the darn thing from the sad old man with the lantern. It wasn't hard, the guys an airhead who sounds like a half wit."

The wolf's whiskers tipped up in intrigue. If he had managed to get it, the upstart may have a chance to his scheme. He tipped his nose and sniffed the air.

"Get your face outta the dirt. It's right here."

The youth yanked a something that he had been wearing under his shirt. The cord snapped and a small faceted crystal glittered with a pale pink light.

"Impressive, how did you hunt it down?"

"These things are designed to catch those three light bulbs. Once it's sucked in we can use it to hop back. Once we're there we'll get the purple one and come home to the now." As the small jewel swung back and forth on it's captors thread, it's light swelled and dimmed.

The creature had heard of this one. The most sought of the three. People would spend their lives trying to hold onto it and use it. Fix mistakes and glimpse loved ones again if not do more than glimpse.

"What's this one's name?" the dog asked.

"I don't know some archaic thing only the Heads and the Guardians know how to say." the youth's back was to him so the canine crawled around to get a better view.

The boy took a gold cylinder out of his coat pocket and held it up to the bottom tip of the gem. He tapped the top of the gem and the bottom opened and a beam of pastel pink shot into the golden tube.

The two shielded their eyes but the boy held onto the crystal and tube. Light bounced out of the glass at the other end of the tube and it swirled until a pale pink veil split in the air in front of them, unleashing winds into their faces.

Brushing the hair out of his eyes, the boy stowed the crystal and tube in his pocket once more and moved toward the veil. It felt like he was moving through a waterfall so thin that it was merely the width of paper. It was cool and calming and he hated it.

Pushing through speedily he felt a hook in the middle of his chest and he was blinded by the light as he tumbled and dashed through the space, if it was space in any way. The freezing, burning sensation tingled through him.

The wolf surely thought this human was crazy, but he followed suit, after all he had been promised a fight that he had waited for ages to have. So much waiting that this was a rather ironic solution.

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**A/N: Review?**

**-Mimic**


	2. Chapter 2

**1- A Vengeful Wolf**

Jackie popped out of the Tunnel, yawning as she walked around the rocks and onto the Burgess lake. The water froze the moment she stepped on it and her gait was interrupted by a slight limp.

She ran a hand under her glasses as she walked, by moon that meeting had dragged! Now it was one in the morning, and she felt so tired that she wasn't sure that she was going to make it back to her flat in Burgess. What didn't help was that it had started after a long day in the book shop, so she hadn't actually slept in 36 hours.

Taboo wasn't much help, she was just as tired.

The ice tiger swayed back and forth as they walked, and Jackie eventually leaned against a tree and slid down the trunk, landing on the ground in a sitting position.

"_Sleeping here tonight?"_ Asked Taboo, her eye glow dim from tiredness.

"Think so, maybe." Replied Jackie, yawning. "As long as we're up before the sun, we're good."

"_But don't blame me if someone gets on your case about sleeping outside."_

"What are they going to be worried about? It's not as if I'm going to get cold!"

The pair shared a chuckle and Jackie pulled up the hood on her pale blue hoodie for a little privacy. From what she wasn't sure, she just wanted it up to sleep.

Her dark brown eyes closed slowly, and as Taboo lay down protectively in front of her, she quickly drifted off.

Taboo shot out her doze and pulled her head up. It was difficult to tell how long she had been dozing, there was an eclipse tonight after all.

She turned her head to look at Jackie's watch, and saw that the pair had only been sleeping two hours.

Taboo's tail twitched. There was a reason she had woken up, something wasn't right.

The lake looked the same as always, but the shadows in the trees, they seemed darker.

"_Jackie. Jackie wake up!"_

The young woman groaned in her sleep, but otherwise didn't respond.

Taboo growled uneasily. She knew from experience that Jackie wouldn't be woken up easily, but she didn't want to roar, not when something felt this wrong.

Taboo stood up, shaking herself to the point where it looked like she actually had fur. Better to face this standing up.

"She's asleep? Really? This almost makes this boring."

Taboo tensed, her teeth bared as she scanned the area for the familiar sounding voice. She hadn't heard it in a while, not since the battle in Melbourne a few months ago.

"_Show yourself!"_ Taboo snarled, her actual snarl echoing across the lake.

"Since it's you."

A wolf standing at just over seven feet stepped out of the shadows, said shadows curling around his paws. The dark shadows blended in perfectly with his solid black, shaggy coat and his red eyes glinted.

He was taller than Taboo remembered, but she decided that it didn't matter right now.

Taboo growled at the wolf on the other side of the lake."_You want a fight, Fangs?"_

"Yes, that is exactly what I want."

There was no trace of sarcasm in the wolf's voice, he was serious, and if Taboo had adrenaline, it would be pumping right now. She wouldn't mind a good fight herself.

"But, I don't want to fight with you. You I don't have an issue with, the one behind you, however…"

The wolf took a step forward, opting to move around the lake and Taboo growled, lowering her body to defend the prone Jackie. There was no way in hell she was going to let him attack Jackie while she was asleep, there were so many things wrong with that!

As the wolf stepped closer, still clearly not backing down, Taboo realised that she couldn't fight him like this. Shadow wolves were gathering in the tree line, and the moment she stepped away to fight the solid wolf, the shadow wolves would be on Jackie in a flash.

Taboo squared her stance and lowered her head. Time to be the worlds loudest alarm clock.

Taboo raised her head and roared.

Jackie started from sleep, and took about two seconds to assess the situation as Taboo's roar echoed all the way into Burgess.

She took in Taboo's posture, the shadow wolves surrounding the lake, and the familiar large black wolf that suddenly lifted its head to howl.

Jackie's eyes widened and she threw herself forward, leaping over Taboo as the wolf leapt for her, hood flying back down and hair streaming.

The wolf landed in Jackie's original position and she tucked herself into a roll, quickly rolling to a standing position and spinning to face the wolf.

"Lupine." She said, not quite believing what was in front of her. He seemed taller than before, by about a foot, and Jackie couldn't help but wonder why.

"Yes, me." Confirmed the wolf. "How about a round three?"

"What, best of three? Sorry, I've still won that one."

That was the wrong thing to say, as Lupine snarled and leapt over Taboo as well, only stopping as Jackie pulled up a wall of ice.

Lupine yelped as he collided with it and staggered back as Taboo leapt onto his back. Her jaws gripped his flesh and twisting her head back and forth as she tried to tear at it, but the skin remained frustratingly undamaged.

Lupine, completely ignoring the ice tiger worrying his back, charged at the ice wall, which was being held in place by Jackie. He slammed into it, sending spider web cracks along the surface.

Jackie's arms flinched as Lupine made contact with the wall and she slid back about half a metre. She gritted her teeth and took a step forward, repairing the cracks with her mind as she extended her power through her hands to keep the wall in place.

"_Behind you!"_

Jackie barely had enough time to look behind her as a shadow wolf leapt for her. She had been halfway turned so she managed to land on her back, losing concentration on the wall.

For something made of something intangible, the shadow wolf did a very good job of keeping her shoulders pinned to the ground.

Icicles formed on the ground beside Jackie and she sent them into the shadow wolf, making it disappear.

Before she could catch her breath she heard a cracking noise, then a noise like shattering glass as the ice wall broke into a million pieces.

Her eyes were suddenly filled with a black blur as Lupine reached her, shaking Taboo from his back with seeming ease as he grabbed Jackie's torso with his teeth, lifting her off the ground.

Jackie tried not to yell in pain as Lupine's large fangs dug into her sides, although she could feel blood dripping onto her skin and into the fabric of her hoodie. The hoodie itself wouldn't get damaged, but that didn't mean that Jackie herself couldn't be.

Clenching her teeth together, she couldn't help but notice that Lupine's painfully hot breath smelt really bad, like rotting meat.

_If we survive this, I'm becoming a veggie._

"_Jackie! Concentrate!"_ Called Taboo from the other side of the lake. However she wasn't going to be able to help, she was too busy fending off the shadow wolves.

Jackie closed her eyes to block out the pain as Lupine started shaking his head like a dog with a chew toy, her brown, tied back hair whipping around and getting drool in it. Frost quickly spread from her body, quickly coating Lupine's teeth and gums, not stopping even as it reach the rest of the muzzle.

Lupine yelped at the sudden cold and threw her out of his mouth, rubbing away the frost as Jackie landed by the lake shore and rolled. She lay there for a second, feeling a little dizzy.

It took a second for the dizziness to pass and Jackie was up and on her feet, frost covering the wounds on her side to prevent bleeding and any further damage. She formed ice on the arms and bridge of her glasses, in order to keep them place and hopefully prevent them from breaking.

Lupine snarled and charged at her, saliva hanging in strands from his jaws. Jackie waited until he was almost on top of her before ducking under him, forming her ice blades on her arms and slashing at Lupine's belly.

She expected him to at least yelp, preferably after opening a cut in his under belly, but while she could feel the skin beneath the point of her wrist blade, it didn't cut through it.

Lupine landed on the other side of the lake with the grace of a cat, and grinned maliciously at the confused Descendant.

"Confused pup?" He asked. "Did you forget the date?"

Jackie's eyes shot upwards and she felt the blood drain from her already pale face. It was a total lunar eclipse, how had she forgotten? Tracey and her pack had spent the last month preparing for it!

However, a total lunar eclipse meant that until the eclipse passed, Lupine would be invincible.

A scraping of claws and a rush of air snapped her out of her horror and she looked back at Lupine in time to see him almost on top of her.

He landed heavily on top of Jackie, his blunt claws digging painfully into her shoulders, drawing a little blood as he leered at her.

Jackie flinched at his breath, but also at his teeth, which were sending flashbacks. Snarling, the flash of teeth and incredible pain in her left shoulder and right lower leg.

"Aww, what's the matter Descendant of Frost? Afraid of the Big, Bad, Wolf?"

Icicles shot out off the ground and at Lupine's underside, successfully pushing him off Jackie as she scrambled away. There was no way she could last until the sun came up, she had the home advantage yes, but Lupine had the advantage of being immortal, having several millennia of experience, and the fact he was currently invulnerable.

As much as she hated to admit it, she needed help. Powerful help.

Lupine seemed to agree as he got back to his feet. "Remembering now? It'll take all of your precious Guardians to hold me back!"

_Glad we can agree on something._

Jackie threw herself out of the way of Lupine's next dive, sending icicles towards his face to gain some time. As she stood back up she dug around in her hoodie pocket until she pulled out a silver, circular disc, about the same diameter as a tube of Pringles and two fingers thick. On the disc was a screen showing a map of the world, a few buttons for receiving calls, sending calls, connecting to the new HOG computer system and sending a distress signal.

Near the top was a blue light bulb, which would send up a hologram of the person on the other end of the call once activated, and nearby where holes that showed the speakers.

This was one of HOG's new inventions, a SPARK. There was no real reason for the name, it just sounded cool until they could come up with a proper one.

Holding the SPARK in one hand, her finger found the call button as she did an inner crescent kick at Lupine, sending an arc of ice his way.

A camera that hid inside the device whirred out of the back and sprung into life, ready to broadcast the current scene to the person on the other end of the call.

"Voice Activation!" Barked Jackie as she jumped into the branches of a tree, propelled by her ice power to avoid Lupine and dangling from one hand. "Nicolas St. North!"

Since HOG had decided to work with the Guardians a little more, it had been decided that they should let North have a SPARK, in case for some reason HOG needed to speak with the Guardians outside of scheduled meetings. And Jackie thanked her lucky stars that Jason had decided to go with that one. It would have made it a lot harder now otherwise.

And the reason she had called the Guardians and not HOG? Simple. One, the Burgess Branch was scattered at the minute, one in Ohio, one in Australia and two in Europe, leaving her, Taboo and Jamie to hold the fort. Two, Descendants can die, immortals can't, and fighting Lupine like this was practically a death sentence.

Jackie let go of the branch that she had been holding with her free hand, splayed it as she landed and sent more icicles at Lupine, more specifically his eyes, which bought her a few seconds as the SPARK dialled.

"Come on, come on." She muttered, ducking underneath a shadow wolf that was making its way towards Taboo. Why wasn't North picking up?!

Jackie dived to the ground when North finally picked up, the Russian man's face appearing in the blue light.

"Jackie! Good to hear from you! How well is this working?"

Not having time to exchange pleasantries and not caring whether or not the the camera was pointing at her, Jackie barked. "Lake, Lupine, help, now!"

She then swore loudly as Lupine finally made full use of his shadow power, lifting her off the ground with them and holding her in place as she dropped the SPARK.

The device clattered to the ground as the shadows managed to squeeze tighter, making it harder to breathe as Jackie's ribs creaked from the strain. If Lupine kept this up she'd have broken ribs on her hands. Well, in her chest, damn it she was losing focus!

It wasn't really possible to freeze a shadow, so Jackie could really do was kick and struggle against it as Lupine approached casually.

Lupine opened his mouth to say something, when he got interrupted by a flying ice tiger. An event that doesn't happen very often unless you happen to be called Jackie Davies.

Taboo bit down on Lupine's muzzle and he snarled, trying to shake her off. As he did so the shadow bonds loosened and Jackie was able to slip free.

Almost as soon as she landed back on the ground the shadow wolves were on her. She ducked under one, slashed at another, and kicked out at yet another. Her feet crossed over one another calmly, implementing a little Bagua as she dodged and attacked the shadow wolves.

However, Taboo couldn't hold on forever.

Lupine shook her off and she flew into a tree with such force that her entire right fore limb broke off.

Taboo roared in pain, matching Jackie's sudden scream as she clutched her suddenly painful, then numb right arm.

Taboo struggled to get to her feet as Lupine approached the distracted Jackie.

"_Block it out! Lupine's coming up behind you!"_

Jackie managed to react in time, and instead of attacking Lupine, she ran out into the middle of the lake.

Her powers instinctively started to thicken the ice, but she didn't want that. She instead made the ice weaken and crack until she stood on top of the only safe part of the lake, right in the centre.

This wasn't the best of plans, it was in fact a large gamble, but North was no longer in the SPARK's light, which looked like it had survived its fall. The chances that the Guardians were on their way were high, so all Jackie had to do was buy time.

Lupine looked at the Descendant standing in the middle of the lake, and it was her turn to grin mockingly.

"What's the matter? Afraid of a little water?"

It really wasn't her day, as Lupine took a running leap for her, his mouth wide open to snap down on her body.

She managed to duck, but with nowhere to go Jackie had to let Lupine collide with her, and the pair fell into the water.

Jackie's eyes slammed shut to keep out the water as it started to freeze around her. The water was probably bitterly cold, but she couldn't feel it. Instead she felt a bolt of pure panic.

_No no no no no no no, can't swim, can't swim!_

Jackie's panic only made the water freeze faster, quickly freezing the surface, and the immediate area around her. Not that she even knew each way was up, with her eyes firmly shut against the lake water. At this rate, she would either run out of oxygen and drown, or encase herself in ice and run out of oxygen and die that way. Her lungs were already aching, crying for air.

Jackie forgot the numb arm as she flailed wildly in the water, wanting to reach something other than water and ice, but not finding anything. She was too far out to even touch the bottom.

Jackie thought for a moment that she could hear someone calling her name, and without really thinking she inhaled to call back, sending water cascading into her lungs. The ice restricted her movement as she continued to flail, but slowly she stopped moving.

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**A/N: Review:**

**-theShapeShifter100**


	3. Chapter 3

**2-Fire in the Sky**

"Everyone we have a situation!" North yelled down the halls of the Pole as he grabbed his swords. The 5 present Guardians rushed in, prepared and ready to act.

"I'll scout ahead on this dingo, he won't get far if he tries a hit and run." Bunny called out before vanishing into the floorboards. As his ears dropped out of sight Tooth zipped in the room.

"I'll cover the skies. Any developments will be sent by mini fairy." she chimed before dashing out the window.

"Sandy you're on crowd control!" North was halfway to the sleigh room doors. Sandy nodded, saluted and flew out on a giant eagle.

"Mim-"

"I know, get Jack!" she smashed a snow globe and dove into the vortex.

North was worried. It had not even been a year since the last time they'd had to work with Descendants, he hadn't expected something like this so soon. This was Mim's first encounter with them in person. When North had received the new SPARK unit, he had a bad feeling in his belly that he would have to use it soon. So the time had come.

The sleigh took off and soared into the air.

Mim raced through the woods, as a deer, rainbow eyes looking for the tell tale hoodie, the white hair, the staff. Where was he? The lake was on her left and...it had a gaping hole in the middle.

"NO!" she screamed when she the staff on the last patch of ice. Not again not again not again. She darted onto the edge of the lake. She saw Jack's white hair just about 5 feet down. She braced herself.

A splash of water sprayed her as Jack surfaced holding a girl with brown hair and glasses in a soaked hoodie, which was quickly freezing. Mim morphed a rope and flung it out to them. Jack caught hold and as she tugged and tugged, a massive black wolf dragged itself out of the water on the opposite side.

"Mim!" Jack called, "Buy me some time to get her breathing!" he was out of the water with the girl. Droplets fell from his white hair and froze before they hit the ice. An ice tiger looked at Mim skeptically, one of its fore paws missing.

Mimic kept her distance. She didn't want to approach the wolf, lest it grab hold and tear to shreds. She morphed a bow and arrow and began releasing shots. At his feet, at his chest, his eyes. The arrow would hit, but not penetrate and she would summon it back.

"N-not g-g-onna work." the girl spluttered out between coughs, dripping and freezing water.

"You're still alive pup!" the wolf sneered. He had gotten closer. Mim morphed into a great white wolf and lunged. Her claws found fur and flesh and she ripped to own razor bladed paw dragged across her back and she yelped in pain. He tossed her aside and and she rolled across the ice as a human. The tiger forced in another attack and she clamped down on his flank and held fast. Mim recovered and returned his throw with a punch at 200 miles per hour which flung him back, as the tiger released.

Bunny leapt out of the trees and caught Lupine around the middle, diverting his path towards Jack and the girl.

"Little rabbit...tasty." Lupine licked his chops. He felt a slice across his back. A rainbow of feathers blinded him for a moment before he was knocked down.

"And the birdie! A veritable feast." Bunny and Tooth fought against Lupine as Jackie regained her grip.

"Good timing." Said Jackie to Jack, getting to her feet, shaking but reasonably calm. "Reckon you guys can take him?"

"Course." Said Jack, just as Bunny was thrown off Lupine and flew towards them. The pair raised an ice wall to stop him crashing, allowing the Pooka to push of it and jump back in.

"You're staying?" Said Jack as they lowered the wall.

"Course I am." Said Jackie, standing with Jack in order to fight. "Didn't expect me to run, did you?"

"...Good point."

The white wolf joined the fray again and once North arrived, the four of them managed to take ground from Lupine. As he pushed back the wolf became more vicious. He had managed to get his jaws around Bunny's left forearm which trickled blood as the teeth sank through his leather armor.

The eclipse dragged on as Jack and Jackie moved in to detain Lupine with an icy cage. But as they closed in the dormant shadow wolves condensed into an explosion between Lupine and the others throwing everyone outward.

Tooth whammed into a tree and got tangled in the branches. Bunny tumbled into North and they both crashed into the sleigh. Mim collided Jack and they both collapsed onto the ground. Taboo blocked Jackie and fell to the force before stirring from the ground. Jackie backed up slowly as the predator advanced, ice blades forming on her left arm while her right remained limp.

"Mmmmph" Mim groaned as Jack lifted her off his chest and into his lap. He put a layer of frost on his hand and put it on the back of her neck. The sudden cold woke her up and she put a hand to her head.

Bunny was pulling Tooth out of the tree and North was getting up sorely. Taboo struggled to rise but her lost foot made it tricky. Lupine stepped on her rib cage as he passed, causing a small crack to appear in her icy exterior. Jackie doubled over, clutching her side and heaving. He was almost upon her and she could smell the wet dog stench,

As they prepared to play the defensive a firework shot into the sky. Everyone looked up and as the image of a swirl, two swishes looping around each other, flashed in the heavens, Lupine howled loud enough to make their ears bleed.

The sigil glimmered for a few seconds more before diminishing into the starry night sky.

"I will have my chance at you pup!" the wolf shouted, before descending to all fours and speeding into the woods, in the direction of the sign. A golden leash held him for a moment before Lupine snapped his head and broke it,and disappeared. Sandy helped dust everyone off before making an arrow to the sky. North winced at his leg and Bunny at his arm. Tooth's right wing had a small tear. They all looked to Jackie, as they had no idea what that had been.

"That's a trick we use as a last ditch effort in emergencies." Jackie explained. "We can shoot our symbols into the sky."

"So we're dealing with a Descendent." Jack confirmed, his arm around Mim's waist as she held his other hand in hers. Jack's hand had blood from the cut on her back.

"Can't be." Mim said, solidly. She knew about HOG. But this wasn't possible.

"Could be faked." Jackie said, "I don't think I've seen that symbol in any of the files."

"It wouldn't be in any files." Mim continued.

"It's mine."

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**A/N: Review anybody?**

**-MIMIC**


	4. Chapter 4

**3-Research and Recovery**

Jackie looked at Mimic, her eyes wide.

"Are you sure?"

Mimic nodded. "Without a doubt."

"Then, who...?" The adrenaline in Jackie's system was fading, and now she felt too tired to think straight.

"Is a mystery." Said North, leaning on his sword.

"Yeah..." Jackie remembered something and got rid of the blades as she spoke. "Thanks, for coming. I wasn't expecting everyone to show up." Mimic was definitely a surprise. Jackie had been at the Pole a whole week a few months ago, back in October and just before the battle in Melbourne, and she hadn't seen hide nor hair of Mimic that entire week.

This was the first time Jackie had ever seen Mimic in person. The Guardian of Balance was thankfully back in her normal form, black and white streaked hair in a ponytail, a long sleeved shirt with diamonds cut in the sleeves that was black on one side and white on the other, and also finished high up, exposing Mimic's midriff.

She also wore a pair of primarily black shorts, and ribbons wrapped around each foot, one black, one white. Finally on her arms were a pair of glass armbands. She stood casually, but tense.

"Well of course!" Cried Toothiana. "You came when we asked, so it's only natural we return the favour."

Sandman nodded, forming a silhouette of Jackie, a calendar flicking through months and the phrase 'SOS'.

"I suppose I don't ask for help often." Jackie mused, translating while pushing her glasses up her nose. "Still, thank you, really."

"Is no problem." Said North, waving away the concern with his sword.

The Russian's face frowned when he noticed that Jackie was swaying slightly. "Are you alright?"

"Been better." Jackie admitted.

"_At least you still have your arm!"_ Growled Taboo, finally managing to get up. The tigers voice sounded similar to Jackie's, only deeper and with a slight rolling growl on the 'r's.

Mimic jumped at the sudden telepathic communication as Jackie replied.

"Doesn't feel like it." Jackie lightly thumped her limp right arm to make her point. The hit caused some of the leftover ice from her being in the lake to fall off, but there was still a lot in her hair. "Does that happen to you when I get hurt?"

"_Yeah, I've learnt to block it. A lesson you need to learn apparently."_

"Alright, alright. I get the point."

"The tiger talks." Mimic looked between Jackie and Taboo.

"It's a long story." Said Jackie, holding out her left arm and calling Taboo's broken off leg to her. The ice limb flew across the lake and she caught it without looking away from Mimic.

"Mimic, Taboo. Taboo, Mimic." She said, gesturing with Taboo's severed leg, before crouching down to reattach it. "And I'm Jackie."

"Call me Mim." Mimic said automatically. Jackie winced slightly before answering, attaching Taboo's leg had given her a bad case of pins and needles.

"Only if you're sure." Jackie moved around to repair the crack in Taboo's ribs. It was a quick fix and the pain in Jackie's own ribs left, replaced with a dull ache from being squeezed by shadows.

"I'm sure."

"Okay, Mimi-Mim." Jackie corrected herself, standing up with a little help from Taboo. Once Jackie was up Taboo collected the SPARK and passed it back to Jackie, who stowed it in her hoodie pocket.

"Mim." North said, causing everyone's attention to turn to him. "How many people know that symbol?"

"Not many."

"It was fire as well." Jackie's brain was slowly whirring back into action now she wasn't in quite as much pain. "There are several Descendants who can use fire."

"How do we know it's not one of Mim's Descendants?" Asked Jack.

"Impossible. We've been keeping tabs on the family. No kids have popped up since Nym became Mim, let alone any Descendants."

"I'm sorry?" Went Mim, defensive at the mention of her family, and Jackie looked a little sheepish.

"I-It's standard when a new immortal becomes a Guardian. We did the same thing with North's Descendants back in the day."

Mim looked like she was not accustomed to protocol stalking, so Jackie decided to keep going.

"Anyway, we should have lists of fire Descendants in the files. I can go have a look."

She made to turn when she felt the crook of Jack's staff on her shoulder.

"What?" She asked, turning her head to look behind her.

"We're all looking." Jack turned his gaze to the rest of the Guardians. "Right?"

The rest of the Guardians nodded in agreement.

"You don't have to. Looks like this might be a Descendant thing."

"And if it isn't?" Asked Jack, one eyebrow raised.

"...Okay, but don't blame me if anyone down there faints from shock." Said Jackie dryly, shrugging off the staff and continuing to walk to a point behind the rocks.

She was still so tired, the lack of sleep and fading adrenaline really getting to her. The bad leg was playing up in her tiredness, so the limp was more pronounced, to the point where Taboo lumbered over and stuck her head under Jackie's arm to give her some support.

"This way." She said, although given how slow she was going it was pretty obvious where she was going.

Jack already knew the way, so he took Mim ahead to wait for the rest of them.

"Jackie." Went Jack as the Descendant reached them. "What were you doing in the lake?"

_Only now does he think to ask?_ Thought Jackie, but she answered dryly. "Drowning."

"Why were you drowning?"

"...Tactical error. I didn't think Lupine was going to jump at me like that. Thanks for getting me out by the way."

Jackie had found the purple flower that signalled the entrance to the Tunnel. "This won't open wide, so we'll probably have to go down one at a time."

"What won't open wide?" Asked Mim, and Jack and Jackie looked at her, giving her an eerily similar mischievous smirk.

"You'll see." Said Jackie, and she tapped her foot twice against the ground.

It opened up beneath her and she fell into the Tunnel. It only went one way, and there was a level part of the Tunnel directly beneath the entrance for someone to get their bearings.

Jackie waited until all of the Guardians were in the Tunnel, before forming a path of ice down the Tunnel and blades appearing on the soles of her feet.

"This way." She said, grinning tiredly before shooting off down the Tunnel.

"_No fair!"_ Cried Taboo, bounding after her, quickly followed by the Guardians. "_You cheated!"_

"You're losing your game!" Called back Jackie, skating backwards to face the ice tiger as the Tunnel went deeper into the earth. She had to bite back a laugh at how the Guardians were doing. Mim had taken to the ice path as well, and was skating behind Taboo, Jack was surfing along the walls, Bunnymund was running at an odd angle, trying to avoid the ice path and Sandman was just floating along calmly. It was the next two that had her giggling.

North was sliding along comically, panic on his face as he struggled to control his descent, and Toothiana was just managing to stay upright on the ice, but she was flailing all over the place.

Jackie grinned to herself as Taboo managed to catch up, and she turned back to face forward.

"_Is that a challenge?!" _Taboo practically roared, but the ice tiger was also wearing a grin.

"You bet ice cube!" Jackie cried back, laughing and feeling a bit more alive. However the fun didn't last, as the group was reaching the end of the Tunnel.

Jackie stopped forming the ice path and walked towards the blocked off end. As the other Guardians stopped she heard Bunnymund ask why the Tunnel was blocked.

"We can't just have any Descendant waltz in."Said Jackie, "We've had to update security recently."

To illustrate her point, Jackie placed her hand on the wall. A palm reader seemed to grow out of the earth wall where Jackie had put her hand and it scanned her hand, flashing green when the system recognised her.

"Recognised. Jacqueline Olivia Davies." Said a computerised voice. "Plus six, guests."

"Confirmed." Said Jackie, and the palm reader disappeared back into the wall and the wall crumbling away.

Jackie didn't look back, but she could imagine the Guardian's faces and had to grin. She highly doubted that any of them had a security system like that.

Jackie walked through the new opening, flanked by Taboo as they exited to the Departure Cavern. As they walked Jackie's posture subtly changed, her shoulders went back, she stood a little taller. She didn't look like she was about to drop, although she had a feeling that her face didn't share that.

"Whoa. Talk about space management." She heard Mim say, and Jackie turned around and walked backwards to look at the Guardians. The Departure Cavern was pretty large, it had cracks at regular intervals around the brown rock walls signalling different Tunnel entrances. These cracks extended up to the very top of the Departure Cavern, which you could barely see because it was so high up, and after the first layer a path of rock curled up the sides of the circular cavern, allowing access to anyone.

Jackie grinned and turned around, still walking, feeling a bit better now she wasn't in any danger of being attacked. She was still limping, but not as slowly.

She led the Guardians through the connecting tunnel/corridor and into the Main Cavern, which was a room the size of a football stadium, and had the same moss coloured walls of the Warren. Although that was where the similarities ended. The cavern was completely bare, only really there as a place where all of HOG could gather, with enough space for any flyers, however, the size alone was still impressive.

"Welcome, to the base of the Human Order of Guardians!" Said Jackie proudly, turning back to face the Guardians with her arms outstretched, a smile on her face.

Taboo rolled her eyes. "_Show off."_She complained, but Jackie didn't care, just seeing the shock on the Guardian's faces was enough. Jack was the only one who had seen it before, and even he looked surprised at the size.

"I swear it wasn't this big last time."

"Last time was over a decade ago." Said Jackie.

"You've been here before?" Mim asked Jack.

"Once, a while ago."

"Don't tell me, that's also a long story." Mim had her hands on her hips, in a jokey, pretending to be mad kinda way, which Jack saw right through.

"Very long." He said, smiling at his girlfriend as he put his arm around her. Jackie turned around to avoid watching what was probably going to end in a kiss.

"Moving swiftly on!" She said, a little louder than necessary. "That there is the Records Room." Jackie pointed to a multicoloured door, which looked a little out of place in the moss covered wall and stood about twenty metres to the right of a large pair double doors made of dark wood.

As soon as she said it someone came out of the Records Room. The woman was quite tall, with black hair that was tied back and dark skin. She was wearing a doctor's coat and smart trousers, exactly what she had been wearing to the meeting a few hours ago. The most notable feature however, was the iridescent, insect like wings that were hanging casually from her back, which were almost identical to Toothiana's.

The woman looked into the Main Cavern, and did a double take when she saw who was in the room. She quickly located the only Descendant in the group and sighed, walking over.

"Jackie." She said with a South African accent, pausing briefly to nod a greeting to the Guardians. "Why am I not surprised that this has something to do with you?"

Jackie's eyes widened, she had not expected any of the other Heads to still be here. "Hi, Claire." She said, a little nervously. "I didn't know you were still here."

"I had some paperwork to do." Claire looked at the Guardians and back at Jackie with a raised eyebrow.

Jackie tried to put on a light hearted smile, but it just looked nervous. "Funny story..."

"I don't want to hear it." Claire shut off Jackie's explanation, then looked the younger woman up and down. Jackie had ice in her hair, seemed to be putting most of her weight of her left leg showing that she was tired, and her pale blue hoodie had some pale brown stains that hadn't been there a few hours ago.

"Scratch that. What happened to you?"

Jackie opened her mouth to answer, when Jack interrupted. "Attacked by Lupine, fell in the lake."

Jackie glared at Jack. "I can answer for myself you know."

"You weren't going to tell the truth."

Taboo let out a rumbling chuckle, making Bunnymund jump and North to chuckle at his reaction.

"_You can't really deny that Jackie."_

Jackie glared at the pair of them. "Traitors."

"Enough." Said Claire in her Head voice. "Jackie, you are going to the Medical Cavern. May I ask where you are going?" Claire's voice became a little more respectful when she talked to the Guardians, but she had been at the Pole with Jackie last time, so didn't feel the need to follow the usual protocol.

"Records Room, we need to look for Descendants who can use fire." Said Mim, and Claire nodded.

"Very well, Taboo will escort you and help you find what you need. I'll make sure _someone_ gets to the Medical Cavern." She turned to look at Jackie, who had been trying to disappear into the main group of the Guardians.

"I know what you're like Jackie." Said Claire before Jackie could even attempt to protest. "Walk or I will drag you."

Jackie looked so much like a child that had been caught with their hand caught in the cookie jar that Mim had to laugh a bit.

It wasn't helped when Bunnymund muttered "Someone's get ya number." And Mim clapped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing too much, eyes light pink and merry, despite the fact that Taboo was openly laughing at Jackie.

Jackie glared at the tiger before limping towards the Medical Cavern on the other side of the Main Cavern, which was blocked off by a heavy looking white curtain.

Before following Claire turned back to the Guardians. "I hope you find what you're looking for." She nodded curtly and turned on one heel to follow Jackie.

Sandman let out a long breath and Taboo would have followed in suit, if she actually had lungs, still chuckling to herself.

"_Now that's done. Records Room."_

The group, now down by one, followed Taboo up the slight slope towards the door. It opened both ways, so Taboo only had to shove it with her head to get it open.

Inside was a room about the size of a soccer field, so quite a bit smaller than the Main Cavern, but still big.

The room had shelves all the way down it, each filled with various coloured files. Each file was coloured coded according to the content, with files about Descendants in HOG being the corresponding colour. There were also black files for the Descendants of Pitch, which took up a good third of the room, grey for the Descendants of Lupine, which were still being sorted and brown for general information, which took up at least half of the room.

Right at the back was a closed off section for the Descendants of North only, which contained Atlantian spell books. It was closed off because anyone except the Descendants of North that tried to use them didn't end up, alive, if the spell was too high level. It just wasn't compatible with their own powers most of the time. The exception was the Descendants of Toothiana, and most of them didn't care anyway.

Finally in the centre of the room, was HOG's Globe.

It stood at six feet, so wasn't quite as detailed as North's. It spun slowly, and had scattered, white dots on its surface. Unlike North's Globe of Belief, this Globe didn't show children who believed in the Guardians, instead it showed active Branch locations. If you were to tap a light, it would expand into several different coloured lights, the number and colour showing which kind of Descendants were in that Branch. Tap a single light from there and you'd get basic information about that specific Descendant.

"Whoa." Went Jack.

"This place is really big." Said Toothiana, flying up. The Records Room only had one floor, but they could add a second if they really needed to.

"There's so much." Murmured Mim.

"_Some of these date back nearly ten thousand years." _Said Taboo, playing tour guide.

"That's how long you guys have been around?"

"_That's how long some Descendants have been around. HOG as a group has existed about as long as the Guardians have been a group."_

"So there are other Descendants?"

"_There's a lot of us. We don't always get along though, and sometimes we form odd alliances. We are currently allied with a pack that is mostly made up of Descendants of Lupine."_

"Lupine, that's who we fought just now?"

"_Yep, Descendant politics can be complicated, but usually they follow their ancestor's alignment."_

With nothing else to discuss Taboo announced to the rest of the Guardians.

"_Welcome to the Records Room.I suggest we check the brown, black and grey files. They're the most likely to have something."_

When no one moved Bunnymund suddenly clapped his paws together. "Ya heard the tiger, get to it!"

The Guardians split off to cover different sections and Taboo made her way to the Globe, not having any opposable thumbs to check the files.

She lay on the curved, wooden table in front of it, being careful not to scratch it, and did a bit of Globe watching. It was unlikely for a light to go black, but she wanted to be sure, especially with the Burgess Branch so scattered at the moment. They could easily come under attack now, with only Jamie to defend Burgess. Not that it was a bad thing, he was good, but only one person.

Taboo twitched her tail and settled into a more comfortable position, keeping an ear out in case a Descendant came in and freaked out. Someone would probably have to drag them to the Medical Cavern if that happened, and it was most likely going to be Taboo.

In the Medical Cavern, Jackie was sitting on one of the beds that lined the walls, each one with enough equipment beside it to make the most high tech hospital blush.

None of that was needed today though, she was just getting checked over by Dr Claire Evans.

"You're lucky." She commented, looking at Jackie's torso. Her hoodie and t shirt lay on the bed next to her. "Ribs are just bruised, the bite marks aren't deep so won't require stitches." Claire did another check with her stethoscope. "And there's nothing wrong with the lungs after you nearly drowned."

There was a hint of disapproval in her voice, as if annoyed that someone who instinctively froze water when they touched it could drown.

"Okay, okay. I didn't think he was going to jump at me like that." Said Jackie, shaking the leftover ice out of her hair. She had already explained what happened to Claire and the older Head had remained characteristically calm.

"You are a magnet for trouble." Said Claire, putting the stethoscope down and picking up some bandages. "Hold still."

Very quickly Jackie's torso was wrapped in tight bandages, and she was pulling her shirt and hoodie back on.

She made to stand up and Claire put an uncomfortably warm hand on her shoulder.

"Not so fast." She and Jackie resisted a groan. What now? She just wanted to help the Guardians look in the Records Room!

"You've barely slept, it's easy to see. Stay here, sleep. If the Guardians need anything then Taboo can come to me. I'll be in the Sleeping Quarters."

Jackie wanted to argue, but Claire had a point; she was shattered. However, she still had her pride.

"I can sleep later." She said, getting up again.

Claire kept her hand on Jackie's shoulder and pushed her back down. "When was the last time you slept?"

Jackie opened her mouth to answer, and realised she had to think for a second. Claire didn't even wait for an answer.

"I thought so. Sleep, now."

Jackie paused, but saw that her stubbornness wasn't going to get her anywhere.

"Alright." She sighed, placing her SPARK on the side and leaning back on the bed.

Claire nodded, glad that she'd managed to get through to Jackie.

"Good, there's Dreamsand in the drawer if you need it." Claire motioned to the chest of drawers next to the bed, on top of which the SPARK was sitting. "Otherwise, sleep well."

'_Sleep well' huh? When was the last time _that _happened?_

Jackie just closed her eyes, and tried to follow the doctors orders.

Claire poked her head in the Records Room and saw that the Guardians were looking through the more general files, which was a good start, but even with six of them it would take a while.

She walked in and approached the nearest Guardian, who happened to be Toothiana.

"Just to let you know." She said quietly to Toothiana, who looked up out of the folder she was reading and at Claire. "Jackie's sleeping, and I would recommend that we don't disturb her for a while. If you need anything, I'll be behind the purple door in the Sleeping Quarters. Taboo can show you where it is."

Toothiana nodded her thanks. "Thanks." Toothiana's eyes flicked over to Mimic, who was reading something intently. "I don't think we've explained things properly to Mim, do you think you could?"

"I will try." Said Claire, and walked briskly over to Mimic. who happened to be hanging upside down from one of the shelves, eyes dark brown and focussed.

"Miss Mimic?"

Mimic looked up from the folder in surprise, not expecting the formality. "Miss? Haven't been called that in eons. Just Mim's okay."

Claire doubted it had actually been eons, since the Guardian was actually chronologically younger than the Head, which was an odd thing to think about. So Claire stopped thinking about it.

"It may be okay with Jackie, but she hasn't been around as long. It is protocol to use such titles when addressing immortals."

"Okay…"

Claire continued. "As I understand, Descendants have not been explained to you?"

"I've heard bits and pieces, you're sort of related to us?"

"More or less. It gets more complicated with beings like Bunnymund and Sandman, however the basic idea is once you become immortal, any children conceived after that point in your immediate family will inherit powers similar to yours. It varies."

Mimic nodded, storing away the information. "So, you're one of Tooth's Descendants?"

"Correct."

"Does your whole family have wings?"

"No, the powers often skip several generations. There are some family lines who are all Descendants, but they are rare, one or two lines for each set of Descendants."

"So, do you gain these powers at puberty or something?"

"No, we are born with them. I have had these wings since I was born, and someone like, say, Jackie, has been able to control ice since she was born, with all of the biological implications that go with it. You'll have to ask her when she wakes up."

"Wakes up? Why, what's wrong with her?"

"Nothing much, she'll be sore for a few days. No, she's sleep deprived, so she should be sleeping right now. If you need any help then Taboo will be able to tell you where I am."

"Okay, thank you, Claire, isn't it?"

"Yes. I am Doctor Claire Evans, Head of the Descendants of Toothiana. Jackie is Head of the Descendants of Jack Frost."

Mimic nodded again, "Thanks."

"You are very welcome Miss Mimic." Claire nodded respectfully, and left the room.

"So what's our plan of action?" Bunny asserted placing a few files on the library table a few hours later. The others put similar stacks of files on the table as well. As they rifled through them, North suggested that they divide and conquer.

"I, Tooth, Sandy and Bunny will look into all these fire people." he declared.

"What about us?" Jack and Mim voiced in unison.

"You go look around in Mim's old house."

"What! You cannot be serious North! I am not going back there." Mim launched a plethora of protestations.

"Claire sent me message with SPARK…" he held up the device, "...that it might be best for you to check out your close family members. Investigate! Is not so bad." he encouraged with his big Santa smile. Mim continued to glower.

"C'mon snowflake. We can bring Jackie and Taboo when she wakes up" Jack grabbed her hand and dragged her out. North turned back to the Guardians as Taboo leapt past them and nudged the door open with a nudge of her head and a flick of her tail.

* * *

**A/N: Review? Yes? No, maybe so?**

**-theShapeshifter100**


	5. Chapter 5

**5-Looking for Fire**

"We split up." Said North, standing in the Main Cavern with the four remaining Guardians. Jack, Mim, Jackie and Taboo had already gone through the Boston Tunnel, leaving the others to sort out where they were going.

"There are four groups to cover, two immortals, two Descendant groups. Fiero Solarion and his Descendants, and Jack O'Lantern and his Descendants."

"I'll take Jack O." Volunteered Bunny. "The ole' pumpkin head's not gonna do much to me."

Above Sandy's head appeared the symbol of a pumpkin, followed by a baby.

"Alright, Sandy, you take Lantern's Descendants." Said North. "I will take Fiero."

"Which leaves me with the Descendants of Solarion." Finished Tooth.

"I suggest that you be careful." Said Claire, coming up from behind, deciding to use her wings for once as she hovered in place. "The Descendants will be neutral, but I don't know how well they will react to you."

"We'll be fine!" Said Tooth, sending Claire a smile, which she didn't return.

"I admire your optimism, and I would still highly suggest taking a Descendant with you, just in case. We are most likely dealing with a Descendant, and it was primarily an attack on a Descendant."

"But a distraction from an attack on a Guardian, from what you've said." North reminded, his voice low and serious. "And I do not wish to risk any of your Descendants getting hurt."

"We are well trained, and have an excellent medical team."

"I do not doubt that, however, we are more likely to walk away without serious injury."

Claire frowned. It was true that the injuries the Guardians had picked up in the fight with Lupine had healed remarkably quickly. Her shoulders went down and her wings fluttered slightly as she landed.

"Very well. I cannot order you around, I just ask that you return here once you are done."

"Gotcha shelia."

The Guardians moved into the Departure Cavern. Tooth and North went back up the one that led to Burgess, where the sleigh had been left, while Sandy and Bunny went from the one that headed for Ireland, specifically, Cork.

Within minutes the sleigh was in the air, with North and Tooth aboard. North flung a Snow Globe into the air in front of them and disappeared into it. Once out they were above a very typical African savannah. Long, yellow grass, scrub, flat topped trees and various animals wandering around.

Tooth jumped out of the sleigh and flew east, flanked by a few Mini Fairies as she remembered the vague location of the Descendants of Fiero Solarion.

North continued going until he felt the temperature increase. Satisfied he landed the sleigh in front of a Boabab tree and jumped out, considering whether or not to abandon his coat due to the sweltering heat of the savannah.

"Nicolas St. North." Said a deep, rolling voice. "A surprise."

"Not too unwelcome I hope." Said North, abandoning efforts with his coat and hoping that this would go smoothly.

"Depends."

A shadow leapt out of the Boabab tree and stepped into the sun, revealing a man that was anywhere between his teens and late twenties. He was dressed in a light black and grey jacket with fire motifs on the sleeves, contrasting his dark skin and hair colour. His shirt was bright orange, with vertical yellow stripes down the side and a couple of red horizontal stripe near the bottom and his trousers were deep indigo. His spiked hair was tipped with red orange and yellow, giving the impression that his hair was on fire and matching his orange eyes.

"Why are you here?" Asked the Spirit of Fire, flicking with a lighter absentmindedly in one hand.

"Do you know Mimic?"

Fiero frowned. "We've met. Spirit Ball I believe."

North decided to cut to the chase. "A few hours ago a sigil was sent up-"

"Sigils are a Descendant thing." Interrupted Fiero, growing irritated.

"I am aware of that, but it was made of fire, and showed Mim's symbol, this happened just after we were attacked by Lupine, who we think is working with them."

"What makes you think I would work with the overgrown flea bag?!" Cried Fiero, his hand bursting into flame and throwing a fireball at North.

North ducked and tried to continue, while dodging. He didn't want to draw his swords. "Is just line of inquiry!"

"No! I did not fire a sigil, let alone Mimic's! Now get out!"

North did just that, getting back in his sleigh and flying up with more than a little relief. He hoped that Fiero's Descendants were a little calmer.

Tooth quickly found the camp, in what looked like to be a village that could be disassembled and moved around quickly. The buildings were tents and there were a few animals such as donkeys and a couple of dogs around. The file did say that they were primarily nomadic, following the dry season.

Tooth came down on the outskirts of the village and decided to hover slowly over. Fiero was known for being quick to anger, she just hoped that his Descendants weren't quite as bad.

She noticed some mild activity in the camp, children ran around, as kids do, while the older members either did some form of chore or just talked.

At the far end there seemed to be some form of training session, where a group of young teens were using fire, but instead of firing it randomly, they were using it in synchronisation, going through movements that looked like a martial art pattern. They punched and fire shot from their fists in a straight line, they did a curved kick in front of them and the fire followed their foot.

As she approached the activity in the main camp quickly died down, the children stopping and openly staring at her, while the adults just looked and whispered among each other.

Not liking the attention she was getting, Tooth cleared her throat.

"Is it possible I could speak to the leader, here?" She asked in what she hoped was the right language, sounding a bit more than confident than she felt.

A man, dressed in only a pair of loose trousers, stood up.

"That would be me, my lady." He said in the native language, which Tooth had correctly guessed.

"Forgive me, I am not dressed correctly."

"It's not an issue." Tooth said quickly, easily noting the similarities between the man and Fiero. They had the same coloured eyes and same shade of skin, but this guy had a more muscular build, and lacked the fire tipped hair. "What's your name?"

"I am Vuur, leader of the Descendants of Solarion my lady. May I ask why you are here?"

"Do you know Mimic's symbol?"

Vuur nodded. "I am aware of it my lady, why do you ask?"

"It was fired a few hours ago, by someone who can use fire."

And you were wondering if it was one of us." Finished Vuur. "It must be of great importance if a Guardian is asking us." Vuur then shook his head. "I assure you my lady, it was not one of us. We were all accounted for several hours ago."

"Are you sure?"

"Utterly. No one here fired the sigil of Mimic."

Tooth nodded, convinced that he was telling the truth. "Thank you for your time."

"It was an honour, my lady." Vuur bowed and Tooth couldn't help but feel embarrassed, why were Descendants so formal? Even Jackie called her by her full name, and she was on friendly terms with her!

"Well, take care." She said quickly, and disappeared into the air to find North.

An ocean away, Bunny and Sandy popped up just outside of the town of Cork, deep in the Republic of Ireland.

"Alright, ole' pumpkin head ain't far from 'ere. Know where yer goin' Sandy?"

Sandy nodded and saluted, taking to the air and forming a small sailing boat of sand, which floated off to the north.

Bunny nodded to himself, before running west on all fours. All he needed was to find an abandoned graveyard.

It didn't take him long, and he decided that Jack O' had picked an appropriate place. The church was old and crumbling, barely standing, even in daylight it looked creepy. The graveyard was full, and littered with pumpkins and turnips, which was what was used during Samhain before pumpkins.

Bunny walked into the graveyard, and instantly felt a prickle on the back of his neck. This place was creepy alright, even in broad daylight. His paws itched for his boomerangs, but he kept control. This was just to talk, not to pick a fight.

His ears picked up the sound of flapping wings, and he ducked just a couple of bats flew over head into the nearest tree.

"Bats? In broad daylight? C'mon Jack O'." Said Bunny.

"Ah, these things do work better at night. You picked the wrong time."

Bunny spun to see a man sitting on one of the gravestones. He was dressed in a slightly battered black tie suit, black leather gloves and had a pumpkin for head. Around his neck was a thick, leather cord holding a burning ember, the glow of which seemed to pulse in time with a heartbeat. Other than that he wasn't exactly imposing, being of average height, about 5' 5'' and really skinny.

"I didn't come 'ere for a scare."

"Nah, you never do." Said Jack O' in an Irish brogue. "So, oh honoured Guardian, what brings

you to my humble abode?"

"Ya can cut that act fer a start." Said Bunny. "Where ya in America a few hours ago?"

Bunny got the feeling that Jack O' was raising an eyebrow at him, despite the fact that the pumpkin face didn't change.

"Why would I be in America? They don't even do Halloween properly! Honestly, what's scary about a Disney princess?"

"I dunno, some of them anklebiters can be ferocious."

Jack O' burst out laughing. "You do have a sense of humour! This is new!"

Bunny waited for Jack O' to calm down, and the Spirit of Halloween spoke again.

"Seriously, I was not in America. It's not my holiday for quite a few months yet."

"Ya sure? Mim's symbol was fired, by a fire user."

"I don't know what my Descendants get up to! Go ask them, I have nothing against Mimic." Jack O' leaned back on the grave he was sitting on and Bunny frowned.

"Ain't that disrespectful?"

"They're dead, they're not going to care." Jack O' shrugged. "Sorry, can't help you. Cemetery's open if you wanna scare someone though."

"I'll bear that in mind." Said Bunny, before leaving the graveyard. Maybe Sandy had more luck.

Sandy flew around slowly, looking for any signs of the Descendants of Jack O'Lantern. These Descendants were supposedly more like HOG, as in they were scattered across the world, but had a main base somewhere. In this case, Ireland. However, HOG didn't know the exact location beyond vague landmarks; they can usually be found near pumpkin patches, turnip patches or derelict graveyards

Sandy wasn't completely sure what he was looking for. Descendants never reveal their powers in public, and if he went by appearance, then there wasn't much to go by, Jack O' had a pumpkin for a head, and he doubted that his Descendants did.

So, all Sandy could do was hope he could spot someone going into their base via the aforementioned landmarks.

After a while, he finally spotted a young woman, with bright orange hair, making her way to graveyard, which didn't look like it was well cared for. It was promising, especially when Sandy noticed her look around nervously, then place her hand on a grave. The grave moved back obliging, and when Sandy formed a pair of binoculars, he could see a staircase.

Sandy quickly dissipated his boat and floated down before the woman could disappear down the stairs.

He waved his arms wildly to get her attention, and the girl, already seeming nervous, noticed and jumped out her skin. That was promising, as it showed that she could see him, despite being in her early twenties. She was about the same height as Jack O'Lantern, but thankfully not nearly as skinny, that wouldn't be healthy for a Descendant, or any human for that matter.

Her blue eyes widened as she took in Sandman, and quickly bowed. However he was so close that she accidentally inhaled some sand and sneezed violently.

"Oh gosh, I am so sorry." She stammered in an Irish accent, her face paling.

Sandy held his hands out in a calming gesture, pointed at her, and formed a question mark. The woman frowned, trying to work it out.

"Why am I here?... What... Who am I?"

Sandy nodded enthusiastically when she got it.

"Oh! I'm Sara, Descendant of Jack O'Lantern."

Sandy smiled in triumph, he got the right one!

Next he formed a pumpkin, a crown, and a question mark.

"Where is the pumpkin king?" Asked Sara, not quite translating.

Sandy shook his head and tried again. He formed someone's head with a crown, pumpkin, a baby and a question mark.

Sara frowned as she translated, then her expression cleared. "Oh! You want to see our leader?"

Sandy nodded.

"Er, she should be down here." Sara gestured to the stairs. "I guess I should lead the way."

Sandy gestured for to lead on, and Sara walked down the stairs. The gravestone closed above them with a grinding noise, but before it got too dark to see torches flared into life along the walls.

The flames flickered as they walked, casting odd shadows on the stone walls as they went deeper underground. Every now and again they'd pass other doorways the presumably led to other entrances, each one wrapped or held open by plant roots.

A few bats flew overhead, but neither reacted much. Sandy wasn't bothered by bats, but Sara couldn't see him, so decided to reassure him anyway.

"They're really friendly. Unless you're not welcome, then they attack."

Sandy nodded and they kept walking.

After a while they reached a curved, wooden door, which looked like something straight out of a medieval castle. Sara grabbed the iron ring in the middle and pulled it open, revealing a castle courtyard kind of space on the inside, except it was underground.

Sandy stepped out and saw that in the rocky ceiling was a ball of fire, illuminating the place. Stone walls lined the room, with doors leading off to different places, similar to Main Cavern in HOG's base, but not nearly as big.

There was a large pair of wooden double doors on the far left, which seemed to lead to main 'castle'.

There were few people moving around, carrying bits of wood, or just messing around with fire. Each one had either ginger or black hair, and a round face.

"Hey!" Sara called to the nearest one, not seeming so nervous down here. "Do you know if Grace is around?"

The one she called to, a man in his forties carrying wood, looked over and nearly dropped it when he saw Sandy.

Sandy tried waving his arms, signalling him not to bow, but he did it anyway and Sandy face palmed. Was that really necessary?

"S-she should be in her Quarters." Stammered the man, straightening up. "W-why is he...?"

"He wants to see her." Said Sara, "Thanks." She walked quickly towards the double doors, and Sandy had to float to keep up.

She pushed them open and revealed what definitely looked like the inside of a medieval castle, complete with tapestries on the stone walls..

Sara strode past them like she'd seen them a hundred times, but Sandy paused to look at them, before floating to catch up.

Each seemed to show various parts of Jack O'Lantern's story, his journey through Hell and bargaining with the Devil, to him dying and not able to go to either Heaven or Hell, so wandered the earth as Jack O'Lantern.

Sara had gone the second right corridor and up a flight of stairs. Eventually the pair reached an orange door, inscribed with a flaming pumpkin.

Sara knocked on the door, and an elderly woman's voice called, "Enter."

Sara leaned her head around the door, ignoring the disorganised piles of paper on the desk, only seeing the elderly woman sitting at the desk, dressed in a pale blouse and blue skirt, whose greying hair was tied back in a bun.

"Yes Sara? What is it dear?" She asked with the seemingly typical Irish accent.

"Erm, the Sandman wants to see you Grace."

Grace gave Sara a withering look. "I don't have time for jokes right now Sara."

"I'm not joking!" Sara pushed the door wider to reveal Sandman, who waved to the shocked leader of the Descendants of Jack O'Lantern.

"Mr. Sandman!" Grace jumped from her chair and lowered into a curtsey. "It's an honour. Come in."

Sandy stepped in, and Sara decided to stay outside, closing the door behind him.

"Apologies for the mess." She said trying to clear some papers. Sandy shook his head, but could do little to stop her clearing up.

Finally she threw on a burnt orange cloak with gold flaming pumpkins inscribed on the edge and stood up straight, hands clasped in front of her. "What can I do for you?"

Sandy formed the continent of America, a fire symbol, Mim's symbol and a question mark.

Grace was thankfully better at translating than Sara. "No, I was not in America, nor were any Descendants that I know of. Mimic's sigil made of fire was spotted there?"

Sandy nodded and Grace frowned.

"I don't know if I can help you. I certainly did not authorise this if it was one of us, but I can't be sure."

Grace shook her head. "I'm sorry, I don't think I can help you. I'll send word to the Order if I find anything."

Sandy shrugged and nodded before turning to leave. Grace rushed over to open the door for him.

"Sara will see you out." She said, and Sandy nodded his thanks before following the younger Descendant back outside.

The four Guardians met back in the Departure Cavern.

"Any luck?" Asked North as Bunny came through, quickly followed by Sandy.

"None mate, Jack O' didn't do it."

Sandy made an image of a pumpkin and baby together, crossed them out. Nothing from the Descendants of Jack O'Lantern.

"We didn't have any luck either." Said Tooth, hovering in the air. "All Descendants of Solarion were accounted for at the time."

"Fiero is not responsible either." Added North.

"So, we're back at square one." Said Bunny.

Before anyone could say anything else there was crumbling noise, suggesting that one of the Tunnels had opened.

Taboo jumped down from above, landing on the edge of the group. If she had lungs, she'd have been breathing hard, her voice even sounded laboured, as if struggling for breath.

"_Jack and Jackie, Descendant..."_

The Guardians never got to hear what Taboo was going to say, as the ice tiger's head shot up. Her face went blank and her ears went back, her tail stilling in horror.

"Taboo?" Tooth flew in front of the tiger's face. "Taboo, what's wrong?"

"_Jack and Jackie, no... they can't have..."_

"Taboo!" Cried Tooth and Taboo finally managed to focus on the Tooth Fairy.

"_Jackie and Jack. They're down."_


	6. Chapter 6

**6-Fire and Ice**

There were days when Jackie questioned her luck.

On one hand, they had probably found the guy who had fired Mim's symbol. On the other, well, fire and ice don't go well together.

At all.

Jack had found him first. Tallish guy with brown hair and white bangs, hockey stick on his back and a backpack over one shoulder. He was dressed in a black and white jacket with black combat trousers, sneakers and a camo shirt.

Jack had assumed that this guy couldn't see him, so dropped down out of the trees to get a good look, and got the shock of his life.

First, the guy _could_ see him, no matter how much he tried to hide it. Second, his face was almost a male version of Nym.

His skin colour made him look like he was starting to get a tan, his cheekbones were so high you could probably skydive off them and his eye shape was the odd, folded in but still round look of someone with European and Chinese heritage.

Finally, his eyes were a mix of colours, a literal rainbow of colours, just like Mim.

Jack had immediately flown around to find Jackie, and the two had gone back to confront him, as calmly as possible of course. However, the strange Descendant had gotten angry incredibly quickly and drew his hockey stick like someone would a sword.

And now they were dodging fireballs.

The stranger swung his hockey stick, which oddly had a ying and yang symbol on the end, in an arc, the whole thing was on fire and sending out an arc shaped blast of flame.

Jackie flung herself to the ground and covered her head as the blast passed over, shaking slightly. Despite assuring the skybound Jack Frost that she was okay, she really wasn't.

Fire wasn't something Jackie could take well, even as it passed overhead she could feel her skin crisping beneath her hoodie, despite the protective layer of frost that covered her like a second skin.

_Fight it Davies, you can do this._ _If you can walk away from a fight with Pitch, you can handle a little fire._

Jackie jumped to her feet and retaliated with an ice blasts from her hand. The ice barely made it past the fire barrier the stranger had put up, and what little did make it past only put a dent, and then a damp stain in his jacket.

"Is that all you got Davies!?" Cried the stranger, before reaching into his coat and flinging hockey pucks at her, each wreathed in a ring of flame.

Oh yeah, that was another odd thing. He knew Jackie's name, and title.

Jackie was reasonably well known among Descendants, the battle in Melbourne hadn't exactly gone unnoticed in the Descendant world, but this guy. This guy shouldn't exist, let alone know who she is.

Jackie spun on the spot, feet crossing over each other and the surrounding air temperature dropping as the pucks came closer. The flames were quenched as the pucks were covered in a thick layer of frost and Jackie took control of them. Once she was facing the stranger again she sent them right back at him as Jack sent an ice blast from above.

The stranger managed to dodge the ice blast and either re-ignited or caught the pucks flying towards him.

"Neat trick!" He called, his voice laced with venom. "Typical of a big shot like a Head. You guys think you're too good for even the Guardians!"

Jackie gritted her teeth, this was guy was good. He had clearly been trained, and trained in a very typical HOG fashion. Yet he was roughly eighteen, while Mim had only been around a decade or so. He had all the physical characteristics of a Descendant of Mimic, but it just wasn't possible.

_Taboo!_ Jackie called with her mind.

"_Yeah?"_

_Trouble, we've found our fire user and need back up. Get Mim!_

"_Roger that!"_

Taboo went quiet, probably telling Mim. Jackie doubted that she knew where they actually were. On the other hand, their opponent was putting on one heck of a light show. Someone was going to to see if they kept this up!

Jackie pulled up an ice wall as another puck came her way. The wall shattered predictably into large chunks, however that's what Jackie wanted. It was so much less effort than breaking it herself.

She caught the shards with her mind, and angling the sharp bits towards the stranger, she fired them at him.

Some he dodged, others melted before they could get to him and he knocked a few others away with his hockey stick, which he twirled around like a staff. However, one did get him.

It slashed his arm, but he didn't really seem to care. Not even when crimson blood was dripping into his coat.

Mim came flying in with Taboo running underneath. Mim went to join Jack in the air as Taboo ran towards Jackie, the former already starting to melt in the heat.

"Get back, away from the fire!" Barked Jackie, and for once in her life Taboo didn't argue, practically scrambling to get away from it.

Mim landed nearby, in her water form, and began drawing water from a nearby pond and flinging it at the fire barrier, dousing it.

The stranger's face twisted into a sneer. "A changer huh? Why don't you go fire and help me with these two irritating icicles?"

"Not a chance." Mim snarled back, sending a wave of water at the stranger.

Jackie took this as her chance. If she could get close enough then she could knock him out, restrain him, and get some actual answers from him.

Jackie sprinted for the stranger, running through doused gaps in the fire barrier.

She reached him just as the water receded, and got hit in the stomach.

The hockey stick had come out of nowhere, slamming into her stomach. It knocked the wind out her and sent her flying, almost landing in the newly reformed flame barrier. However a gust of cold wind, courtesy of Jack no doubt, managed to get her clear.

Jackie landed heavily on the ground, way too close to the fire for her liking as Mim covered her retreat.

Being this close to the fire made it difficult for Jackie to breathe, and gave the feeling of burning and melting at the same time. However, she managed to roll away from the fire, the surrounding grass crisping with frost in the attempt to cool down.

Within seconds she was back on her feet, but before she could do anything she felt her phone go off in her pocket.

"Not now not now." She muttered, scrambling to pull it out and see who it was, hiding behind a tree trunk as she did so.

The caller ID belonged to another Descendant of Jack Frost; Jacob Beck, twin of James Beck and both were from the Boston Branch.

Fearing the worst, Jackie put up a wall of ice to cover her and answered.

"Jacob, if is this is a joke…" One to thing to note about the Beck twins, they were on par with the Weasley twins from Harry Potter with their pranks.

"_No joke boss."_ Said Jacob, and Jackie winced, she hated it when they said something like that. At least it was better than 'sir'.

"What's up?"

"_Lupine's crossing the campus, heading for Calvin's dorm."_

"Is Richard still with him?" Richard Dawn was the Descendant of Bunnymund who was put on the same course as Calvin, with the hope of the two becoming friends so HOG could keep an eye on Calvin. The plan worked like a dream, and now Richard was going to have to be Calvin's bodyguard.

"_Yeah. He's trying to convince Calvin to move, but he's being too stubborn_."

Jackie looked around her tree to see Mim and Jack fighting in sync, despite some of the nasty stuff the fire user was coming out with. Jackie was pretty sure she caught, "You do know she slept around in High School right?"

Jackie shuddered, even after knowing Mim for less than a day she didn't believe that, but she knew that wasn't the point, it was to plant the seeds of doubt, trying to say that Mim wasn't as good or faithful as Jack thought.

This guy was good and Jackie hated that.

"Hang in there. I'm sending backup."

"_What kind of backup?"_

"The immortal kind. Mimic's going to want to know about this."

"_Roger that! Jacob out!"_

Jackie hung up and started climbing the tree she had been leaning against, using ice to help her stick in place until she was level with Jack.

"Jack! Can you hold the fort for a minute? I need to grab Mim!"

Jack looked rough, even this far away from the fire his skin was red, and Jackie doubted that she looked any better. However, he nodded and Mim flew over to Jackie as the two hunkered down in the tree branches.

"Message from the Boston Branch." Jackie got straight to the chase. "Lupine's moving in on Calvin. You might want to go help."

"I'm sure they can handle it." Said Mim awkwardly, and it took Jackie a few seconds to register that, and she was left stunned. This was a her brother, someone she had grown up with, and Mim wasn't even going to check if he was okay?!

"That's not the point." Said Jackie before Mim could fly off. "He's your brother, and he's in danger."

"I told you, I'm not going."

"Why?!" Jackie cried louder than she had intended. "So what if he's temperamental, as you put it. He's your brother!"

"I haven't seen him since I became a spirit, and I'm sure that Branch can handle it." Mim blocked a fireball heading their way, and Jackie was gritting her teeth in frustration and confusion. The fact that she had promised backup wasn't the bit that was playing on her mind, it was how Mim talked about her brother.

He was family, part of the reason Mim was sitting in this tree _right now_, and she didn't even seem to care that he was in some kind of danger.

"Mim." Jackie's was trying to sound calm, but her voice was breaking. "I don't know what happened between you and Calvin, and right now, I don't care. He is in danger, and could get really badly hurt, if not killed. Take it from me, that is a pain that is almost impossible to bear."

Mim looked like she wanted to argue, then saw Jackie's face. The Descendant's eyes were full of regret, and not a small amount of pain. Jackie knew what she was talking about, and Mim saw the red of rage, heavily stanched with a crushing blue grey sorrow.

"Fine, but only if you send Taboo to get re-enforcements."

Jackie nodded, a slightly cocky grin forming. "That was my next plan."

Mimic nodded, giving herself a second to change to air form, and then she was off.

_Taboo!_ Called Jackie as she sent ice to block a fire blast heading for Jack. _Get to the Tunnel, get back up!_

"_On it!"_ There was a white streak as Taboo took off through the pine trees, and Jackie felt a bit of relief. The Tunnel was half an hour away by foot, and even with Taboo going at top speed, the shortest amount of time it would take was ten minutes.

_We'll just have to last that long._ Jackie decided, jumping down and out of the tree. _He may be good and using fire, but Jack and I have more experience actually fighting. He's barely even serving age, I doubt he's seen much action outside of sparring._

Jackie jumped down the rest of the tree, sending a wave of ice towards the fire user as she landed.

Large chunks of it melted before it hit him, but enough was there to at least take him off his feet, the fire on his hockey stick fading as he dropped it.

Jack dropped out of the sky to the side of the fire user, looking ready to freeze him solid judging the look on his face. Jack raised his staff to use his powers, but the fire user quickly recovered, sending a fire blast at Jack's stomach.

Jack yelled and Jackie was already moving, running towards her ancestor and friend as he hit a tree, hard.

Jackie caught him before he fell to the ground, steadying him putting his arm around her shoulder. Like her hoodie, Jack's seemed resistant to damage, but judging from the look on his face, that had to hurt.

Now they were closer to the flames as the fire user picked his hockey stick back up. Jackie could feel sweat trying to freeze, trying to restore the frost layer that had been slowly melting, but it was quickly melting and soaking into her clothes.

"Jack, stay with me!" She cried, managing to keep control after her little argument with Mim. "I need you to stay with me snowman!"

Another fireball was sent their way and Jackie stamped her foot to raise a shield. It was still ice, but it was thick. The fireball managed to get about halfway through, but died before it could do any damage.

One more shot would take it out, so Jackie's attention became divided. One part of her mind was focused on fixing the wall and keeping it there, the other was on getting Jack out of the way and getting a patch of ice on that burn.

She brought him behind the tree. Jack was looking a little more with it, despite the obvious head injury as blood trickled down the back of his head.

_Scalp injuries always look worse than they are._ Jackie reminded herself as without any shame or hesitation, because if she hesitated she would back out, she pulled up Jack's hoodie and tapped his skinny frame. Thick frost spread from where she had tapped and covered the burn, providing instant relief.

Jackie flinched as another fireball hit the wall, but quickly got a hold of herself.

"Jack, how many fingers am I holding up?" She held up one finger and Jack focused.

"One."

Jackie nodded, satisfied, although she had no idea if that head injury was going to have any other effects. She wasn't a doctor!

"Okay, you've got a knock to the head, but you should be okay."

The pair went back to the fight, and at the same time the fire user upped his game.

He stepped out into a wider stance and flung his arms out at the same time, sending the fire towards and around the two ice wielders.

"So, which of you is going to abandon the other first?" He asked as Jack and Jackie stood back to back in the circle of fire. "Mr Abandoned the Guardians? Or Miss I Do Things My Way?"

"I really wish he'd shut up." Said Jack, who was facing the fire user with his staff held in a defensive manner.

"I second that." Agreed Jackie, hands out and covered in ice against the flames, which were too close for comfort. "Can you fly out of here?"

"No, too hot. You?"

"You really hit your head hard didn't you? I can't fly!"

"Yeah, but your pillar, thing."

"Not enough water left in the air for something that big. It's too hot."

The heat was really starting to get to Jackie, her back was no longer pressed against Jack's as she swayed.

"Stay with me Icicle! Focus!" Yelled Jack, ducking away from a fireball and sending back an ice blast with his staff.

"I'm focused!" Jackie defended, whirling around to face the fire user with Jack. She wasn't sure how long Taboo had been gone, five minutes? Close to ten? Either way, surely it wouldn't be long until help got here, right?

Jackie moved her arms in a large, vertical, circular motion, starting from behind and ending up in front of her. At the same time she stomped her front foot down and pushed her hand out as the movement finished, summoning a vertical arc of snow as Jack sent an ice blast.

As always the two attacks halved in power before they even reached the fire user, and even then he dodged with ease.

"Are you sure I'm dealing with a real Guardian and Head?" He goaded as he sent several arcs of fire at them with his hockey stick. Jack managed to jump into the air as Jackie hit the ground, both avoiding them in their own way.

"Because, you two are really pathetic right now!" He roared and sent and even stronger fire blast at them, backed up by two pucks, one at Jack and one at Jackie.

The searing heat crackled over Jackie's head, not even bothering to stand up after the previous attack. Her lungs felt spent, the air was hot and dry, and Jackie felt like she was breathing in treacle.

There wasn't much in the way of smoke, but that didn't matter, not with how things were going.

Jack dodged his puck on both rounds as it made its back its master, but Jackie wasn't quite so lucky.

She dodged it on it's first pass, managing to roll to her knees once it had gone over. She didn't expect the second however, and the puck hit her hard in the chest.

Jackie screamed as the puck hit, burning pain firing through her hoodie, shirt and was left of the frost layer under her clothes. The force of the impact send her backwards, landing back on the ground with an 'oof' as the puck returned to the fire user.

"Jackie!" Jack cried, but Jackie held up a hand to stop him coming over. He had more important things to worry about, like not getting burnt to a crisp.

Jackie covered the burn in a layer of frost, but even with that the burn hurt like few injuries she'd had.

_Another scar for the collection._ She mentally quipped, partially hoping Taboo could hear her. There was no response and Jackie tried to get back up, but quickly found that the surrounding fire had done it's work.

The world spun as she tried to get up and nausea racked her stomach. She groaned and still managed to get to her feet, but she quickly started staggering, not even able to see straight, let alone attack.

_The woods were dark, not even the stars shone through as the Descendants of Pitch surrounded her with fire. The flamethrowers not letting up even as she screamed._

Jack shook her head to dislodge the memory, then tripped over her own feet, and struggled to get back up. The grass around her tried to crisp with frost, but almost immediately it melted, the flames seeming to get even stronger.

"What's the matter _Head _Davies? Need a little rest? A nap perhaps?"

_Shut up you irritating little twonk or I will do it for you._

Jackie started to push herself up, but her arms were shaking so badly. She immediately fell back down, having to leave the fight to Jack as her vision began to go dark around the edges.

"Jackie!" She heard Jack yell through what sounded like the far end of a tunnel, and she tried to focus her eyes on him, but he was on the far end of the fire enclosed space, constantly being blocked by fire attacks and being prevented from helping his friend.

Back over by the fire user, he suddenly seemed to burst into a bright column of flame, causing Jack to turn away from the sudden light, blinking away after images.

Jackie's eyes also turned away, and saw that it had been a ruse.

The fire user was in the tree right above Jack's head!

Jackie tried harder than ever to get up, to get a warning to him, but the world continued spinning like she was on the worlds worst tea cup ride.

Before Jack even realised he was there the fire user jumped down, smacking him across the back of the head with his hockey stick. He had clearly hit the sweet spot as Jack's legs crumpled beneath him, out cold.

He walked calmly over to Jackie, seeming to know full well that there was little she could do. The heat was practically cooking her, and she was exhausted and in more pain than she could bring herself to let in.

With a smirk he raised his hockey stick, his image swimming sickeningly in the heat haze, and brought it down on Jackie's head, turning her world black.


	7. Chapter 7

**7-Brotherly Love at BU**

The wind today was becoming incessant at Mim found herself closer and closer to the Boston Harbor. She was only about 45 minutes away from Jack, but she had lost emotional contact as the feelings of the masses of people crowded him out. She was worried. That guy had looked powerful, even for them. She prayed that they were okay. Her brother was a senior in graduate school. A little older than Jackie she presumed.

Flipping twice, she dove towards the ground. Flattening out for the last hundred feet, she hit the ground running and sprinted down the skinny sidewalks of Comm. Ave. People passed right through her but she grit her teeth and ran faster. It was a short distance, and she didn't need to copy someone's superspeed, but this was taking so long!

Warren Towers Dormitory loomed up ahead. As she was about to cross the train tracks to the two housing buildings, the T Train zoomed just in front of her. With good training and a little telekinetic help, she vaulted over it and tumbled out into the street where she dodged cars and bikes up to the sidewalk.

Now that she was here, she realized that she had no idea which room, or even which of the two towers he lived in.

Dashing in with a group of students she looked around for some sort of clue. There was nothing that hinted where Calvin Louten might be. She growled in rage and the animalistic anger made her want to rip something to pieces.

She kicked over a cardboard cutout of the terrier mascot. It turned a few heads but no one seemed too perturbed. Taking a deep breath she walked through a wall and outside.

She jogged around the outside of the buildings twice before anything interesting happened. She found a rope dangling from a window about 10 stories up. It was worth investigating, she decided and taking it in hand she nimbly began to climb.

The higher she got, the more the wind tore at her, making the rope swing and jostle, even with her feet firmly planted on the building's rough brown exterior.

A window opened next to her and a head popped out. A girl was getting a breath of fresh air, when she turned towards Mim. She could see the rope, but not Mim, but since was holding the rope…

The rope passed through Mim's hands and she began to fall. She began to panic, trying to find an emotion to act on, and as she was about to hit the ground she hardened into steel.

But it hadn't been necessary. A tunnel opened up beneath her and she rolled through it and into...a dorm room?

Losing the steel, but forming a set of daggers, she picked herself up and dusted herself off. The room was bedecked in scarlet and white, as was the school colors. But the trombone case and music stand, as well as the small stuffed gorilla on the floor, made it clear that her brother was responsible for the mess this place was in.

A door opened through her back and for, not the first time that day, someone walked through her. She gasped in surprise, but then had the wind knocked out of her, as the second person knocked into her.

Falling down she rolled to her left and flipped up off her hands. The guy who had knocked into her looked to be about Calvin's age, and he winked at her, albeit grimly. He had dirty blonde hair and grey eyes, with a fairly chiselled looking face and built like a sprinter. Although you could see his arm muscles through his shirt.

"Dude, we gotta get outta here, things are getting dangerous!" he protested with an Australian accent to her _lovable _sibling.

"Since you refuse to elaborate, I don't see why I should go anywhere. I have an economics paper to finish and I'm tired." Calvin plopped into a chair and opened up a tome, that was most likely his textbook.

Richard Dawn groaned in frustration. Was this guy this stubborn? Or this dense?

"Fine! The Big Bad Wolf is coming to get you, and my superiors have sent your sister to come get you!" He grabbed Cal's chair and twirled it so they were face to face. Cal's glasses slid down his nose.

"Don't joke about that! Never ever joke about that! What the heck is wrong with you today Rich? Now get lost, I have homework."

He tried to push Richard out, but this guy was HOG trained and a Descendant of Bunny. Calvin would have more luck trying to uproot a tree with his bare hands.

"It wasn't a joke Cal. Your sister is here to get you to safety." He picked him up and faced him towards Mim, who up until this point had been leaning against the wall tossing her dagger around. Cal's eyes passed over her unseeing. She wasn't surprised.

Richard sighed.

"Is there anything you can do to get him to believe in you?" he asked respectfully, if not slightly exasperated.

Mim thought for a minute. She walked over to his desk, picked up his economics paper and put a ball of fire in the other hand, she inched the two closer together. Richard laughed.

"Gotta love siblings. You better start believing Cal before sweet sis burns up your GPA!"

Cal blinked a few times, and then started as an alien version of his sister stood before him.

"What the...Nym! How are you standing here! Dressed like that!" he spluttered.

"Shut the trap, Cal, we can talk once you're somewhere safe. Which would be?" she looked to Richard.

"HQ has got a security upgrade." he suggested.

"So I saw. Let's get him down that tunnel of yours and out of here" she made to leave but Cal grabbed her arm.

"You have some explaining to do." he said.

"Can you leave us alone for a sec?" Mim asked Richard, although it was not a request.

"No you stay here." Cal outright ordered. Richard threw up his arms in submission.

"Sorry, bro, but she has authority here." and he stepped out, "I'll have that tunnel set up."

Mim pushed Cal back into his chair and held it straight with ice she created. She couldn't create unmeltable ice, so he would have a mess to clean up later, but that wasn't her main concern.

"What business do you think you have telling me what to do!" she yelled in his face. Her eyes were fire red and her body temperature was rising.

"What business do you have stomping in here and kidnapping me!" he shouted right back. He tried to get up but two glass bands morphed into a rather sturdy seat belt.

"Maybe because a giant wolf is coming as we speak to rip out your guts!" she began to pace.

"So! Why? Tell me something so I know what's going on! Why should I believe you?" he was squirming and his left foot was tapping on the floor.

"Because that same wolf got mom and dad and you're next you pathetic blowhard!" her hair was faintly smoking now, but he looked annoyed and it was the annoying look that he didn't realize how small he was in this situation.

"Mom and Dad! So it's all your fault, that I'm involved in this! You always were such a brat with attention issues and now you have to drag me into your weird cosplay act by the looks of it!"

That crossed a line. Mim went full volcaness and it took all her restraint not to set off the fire alarms.

"Can cosplay do this Cal! Huh! You always blamed me for everything! You never once suspected that I could be something special, better, BIGGER!" she grabbed him by his shirt collar, burned the blue flannel, and he pulled away as best he could.

"I have a job, a life and purpose now. Which is more can be said for you, judging by the ramen noodle cups all over your room." she spat out as she cooled down. Back in the black and white, she released him and explained, as best she could, the Guardians and Descendants, and to some degree the "new" her. He sat dumbstruck and he also sat with a frown.

"You got some fancy powers. Now you're even more of a freak." he muttered crossly. Mim only chucked and then laughed full heartedly.

"Yes Cal, yes I am. And I love it, and since I'm the one in charge here, we're getting you out and-"

The door crashed open and Richard whammed into the bed as Lupine squeezed through the door. Mim ran to help Richard up and her bracelets abandoned Calvin and returned to her as a 5 foot spear.

"Do you even know how to use that?" Cal just had to be obnoxious. But he ended up screaming.

"Yes," she grunted as Lupine swiped at her, "I do!"

She thrusted the spear at Lupine's nose and the wolf knocked it aside. She then dug it into the floors and used the force to lash out him with a vicious kick with a steel foot. He lunged forward to bite, but she let go and slid under him.

Richard jump-pushed off the wall and drove his right heel into the back of Lupine's neck. The monster fell to his chin but used his tail to fling Richard into the closet doors. Mim caught Richard halfway there and they landed on the bed. Mim turned into snake and slithered up Lupine's forefoot. She bit him and venom made him stumble and shake his big shaggy head.

She jumped off and as a human, grabbed her spear and instead got a sword. With Richard dodging his teeth and claws, with excellent reflexes and hand to paw combat skills, She sliced Lupine a good slash up parallel to his spine. The dog yelped and tried to turn but the room was small and he knocked Richard out of the open window, where he caught the sill.

"Cal get Richard!" Mim screamed.

Her brother unfroze and scuttled to the window where he carefully pulled his best friend back into the relative safety of the dorm. He was hyperventilating, far quicker than Richard's heavy breathing.

"Miss Mimic! We have to get out of here!" Richard called to the Guardian, who was now going toe to toe with the beast, wolf to wolf.

She jumped to the window, a window with a rope by the way, by them and humanized. She threw small fireballs at him.

"With all due respect Miss Mimic, those won't harm him." Richard stood in front of Calvin in a protective stance, prepared to attack.

"I know." she responded. Lupine saw the open space and charged. Mim turned and crashed through the wall and all 4 of them tumbled out into the open space.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Calvin screamed. Richard himself was not a fan of heights, as his heritage implied. He grabbed Cal and looked to Mim for a plan.

Mim morphed as quick as she could and slowed their descent with a small gust of wind. She had to target this just right…

Mim, Richard and Calvin and fell into the tunnel she had taken into the dorm room. They all found themselves back in his dorm room, rolling in a heap on the floor, where the wall used to be there was only an open space. They lay gasping and heaving from the adrenaline. Mim got up and looked out of the chasm. A wolf lay sprawled on the ground below.

"That fall won't take him out of play for long. People will arrive soon and we need to get away from the scene." Mim was in focus mode now. The short time she had now spent with the Descendants had taught her that she was who they expected to lead, and lead she would.

"Get him to the tunnel, I'll meet you there." she pointed to Calvin.

"It's in the back alley." he grabbed Cal and nodded confirmation and left to follow his orders.

Mim jumped again out the hole in the wall and this time glided down on copied wings. At the bottom she found James Beck and his brother. They were identical, and both had messy brown hair, dark brown eyes and a face shape that was almost identical to Jack's. The main differences were that they had pronounced ski slope noses and high arching eyebrows.

"Oh Guardian, you made one heck of a mess, Miss Mimic" Jacob hollered good naturedly.

"Please, just call me Mim! And don't tell Claire I said so." she grinned. Man, those two were cute. But it's probably because they reminded her of her little blizzard boy.

"Get a crew of yours to remove that mangy dog and if you wouldn't mind helping me fix this." she motioned up to the ruined dorm.

"No problem! That's what we do" James quipped, "Clean-up duty."

"Have some conviction boss, you can order us to do anything!" Jacob prodded.

"Fine! Do it _on my authority_ and these are your _orders_!" she jested in a mock drill tone.

"You better get going, boss!" James reminded her in between laughs.

"Gosh you're right." she sobered and waved as she began to speed to the alley way.

"Finally! What took you?" Calvin was cranky, as always.

"I was arranging to take care of the wreck we created." Mim glared, once again in the presence of her brother.

"Why do all these people take orders from you! Who in their right mind would?" Cal went on.

This time Richard stepped in.

"We are Descendants of Guardians and she is a Guardian. We uphold her in the highest respect and honor, we have been taught so since birth and they protect the children of the world. In the unlikely event that we cross paths we are at their command if they need it because they are imperative to keep the world safe. Honor and Respect. You clearly don't treat her with any even though you have a Guardians bloodline." he wasn't joking anymore and Calvin finally decided to shut up.

"Thanks Richard. Now let's move."

The tunnels are the fastest means of transport to anywhere on the planet. Cal slid down the ice track left by Mim. Richard ran ahead with his faster than normal speed. He unlocked the security system, announcing them as two guests and they stepped into the Departure Cavern.

Calvin looked like he wanted to hurl. He'd always had motion sickness issues. Despite all the yelling and screaming and fighting, Mim somehow felt that she was glad he was okay. She did care about him deep down...like really deep down.

The Guardians were in the Main Cavern, with Taboo, who looked terribly distressed. The sight of the 4 Guardians, none of whom look what humans would call normal, and an ice tiger made Cal's legs turn to jello.

"Keep your ground Cal, they won't bite. We are done with biting for today." Richard examined a scratch from the fight on his bicep, from tooth or claw he could not tell.

"So this is brother." North stepped forward. Cal was tall, but North was much taller and had a very intimidating personage.

"Finally! I'm so glad you're alright, I hope your teeth are okay. You always had such nice teeth and they never got cavities and they're okay too right?" Tooth hummed from over North's shoulder.

Bunny slapped Richard on the back.

"Nice work mate. I'll be sure to tell yer Head about this." Bunny smiled. Richard turned red but smiled back and muttered some sort of thanks. He had never met his ancestor before.

"This is your...grand-something?" Calvin was shaking from shaking hands with Sandy.

"Throw in a few 'undred 'greats' in there somewhere and you're spot on skinny legs." Bunny had heard Mim rant about Cal before. The big brother in him for Mimic wanted to shame Calvin for being such a poor sibling.

Claire entered with bandages for Richard's arm, who quickly saluted to the Head. As a Guardian Mim healed quickly and she can morph armor so she didn't require any immediate medical attention. But she knew Jack would be worried about some the bruises she would have tomorrow.

As the group moved on from Calvin's arrival they had somber looks. Mim noticed. She felt their emotions. Worry, panic, even fear. She knew, by the moon that something was definitely wrong. Tooth was hovering low and chatting with a small group of fairies, feathers drooping and the fairies sniffled and teared up, especially Baby Tooth.

Bunny's ears were back, his whiskers were forward and he was thumping his feet. He only thumped his feet when he was irritated. She knew from when she had put glue on his fur brush with Jack.

North was slumped in a chair with sad blue eyes staring at the table. Sandy's nap looked fitful. Taboo was pacing, growling to herself.

"Calvin. I am here to escort you to your chamber whilst you remain here." Claire asserted.

"Do you have a room for me as a family member to her or something?" Cal asked.

"We're all family members. And yes we have one room for you in the event a Descendant of Mimic appearing." she said, with the proper sharpness. Cal left without argument.

Mim looked at her family's faces. She suddenly felt like she now wanted to cry. She felt it in her heart that something was terribly horribly wrong. Where was Jackie? Where was her Jack?


	8. Chapter 8

**8-Capture and Understanding**

Jackie groaned as she came to, suddenly very aware of a splitting headache, slightly relieved by the cool ground beneath the side of her head and face. A part of her chest throbbed with pain and she could feel spots where bruises were going to show.

She groaned again and forced her eyes open. Thankfully the area she was in wasn't bright, in fact it was quite dark, making it easy on her eyes and head. She also still had her glasses, which was a bonus.

What the hell happened?

Jackie's eyes flickered around in front of her, taking in the black rock wall and floor. It was impossible to tell how large the room she was in was, anything beyond three metres away was shrouded in shadow.

On second thoughts, the better question is, where the hell am I?

"That's a question we're all wondering."

Jackie's eyes shut to concentrate of Taboo's voice. It was obvious that they weren't in the same place just from how faint Taboo's voice was.

Taboo?

"No, the Pied Piper. Who did you think it was?!" Despite the sarcasm, Taboo sounded overjoyed.

Could have been been the Man in the Moon for all I knew. Good to hear you.

"Good to hear you're awake. We're on our way."

You know where we are?

"Vaguely, Bunny and I got some scents. We think you're near where I was, you know. What you call your 'mistake'."

Jackie winced. Sorry.

"Whatever, you're being honest. Anyway, we're on our way if we've got it right, but don't think you can just sit around, got it?"

Got it. See you soon I hope.

"Will do." And Taboo went quiet.

Jackie opened her eyes and tried to see if there were any similarities between where she was now and when she was here last, even though she looking at it from the ground rather than her normal height.

As she looked around she felt a sudden bout of dizziness, causing her to groan and close her eyes again, trying to ignore the nausea now rolling in her stomach. That must have been from the fire.

To keep her mind off the nausea, Jackie made stock of her injuries and position.

Lying on side, possibly tossed. Hands behind back, likely bound. She gave her hands a shake and could confirm that her hands were tied behind her back, quite tightly as well, the rope dug into her wrists.

Headache, possible head injury from the hockey stick. Chest pain, burn from the flaming puck, frozen blood on the sides, Lupine's bites must have had the scabs come off. Nausea and dizziness, possibly the head injury, or could be from the fire, possible heat exhaustion.

Those last two words sent a shiver down Jackie's spine. For most, heat exhaustion, or hyperthermia, was unlikely to be deadly, however, for someone with a body temperature as low as hers, it could easily be lethal.

Let's not go down that route. You're still alive aren't you?

Just in case she let the surrounding temperature drop. Very quickly frost covered the bare rock and her breath became visible as she breathed. She assumed that it hadn't exactly been warm before, but now it was down to Jackie's preferred temperature, especially when she felt like she was overheating, which was most days during the summer.

A sudden gasp made her eyes shoot open and scan the area for the source. When she couldn't find it she shifted around, managing to look over to her other side. It seemed like she was on the far end of a prisoner line, a man and a woman were next to her and Jack was on the far end, looking like he was still out and all four of them had their wrists bound.

The man and woman were shaking with cold and Jackie felt guilty, so quickly let the temperature go back to normal.

As the pair stopped shaking Jackie took a closer look at them in the gloom, ignoring the nausea and dizziness that threatened to start again.

The woman was small in stature with short cut hair. She was asian but the dim light obscured anything more specific. The man was much taller, robust, and judging by that chin, he was definitely caucasian. These must by Mim's parents.

Jackie shifted to a proper sitting position, noting that her ankles were also tied up. She could probably freeze the rope, but doing that would lower the temperature to a level she wasn't sure Mim's parents could survive. She'd never really had to consider that before.

She leaned her head against the rock wall behind her, wincing as the injury made contact with it. There was probably quite the bump there.

She got the impression that Mr. and Mrs. Louten were looking at her, sizing up their new inmate. They had good reason to be nervous, and probably had a lot of questions.

"I don't bite." Said Jackie quietly, but in the silence before it sounded deafening. It took her mind off how ill she felt as she watched the pair's reaction.

The pair jumped and looked at each other. There was another minute or so of silence before.

"Are you alright kid?" Asked Mr. Louten and Jackie resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow, how young did she look? "You sounded like you were in pain." He had the same accent as Mim, Boston but it sounded dulled as if it wasn't native.

"I have a splitting headache." Jackie admitted, deciding not to mention her other injuries.

"Hit over the head?"

"With a hockey stick."

"At least it wasn't a giant wolf." Said Mrs. Louten and Jackie smiled a little grimly. It really was the best way to deal with situations like this. The two of them had probably been down here several hours, so their situation had sunken in. They weren't happy, but they weren't panicking either.

"That happened to me a day ago."

"Seriously?"

"I'd have my hand on my heart if I could." Jackie said wryly.

The dizziness was making more difficult to focus as Jackie's eyesight blurred. She shook her head in an attempt to clear her vision, which only made the headache worse.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Mr Louten asked as Jackie closed her eyes and leaned her head against the wall.

"Dizzy. It'll pass."

Jackie didn't even have to open her eyes to know that they didn't believe her.

"What's your name?" Mr Louten had decided to change the subject.

"Jackie. You?" Jackie knew their names already, but it was probably a good idea to ask so that she didn't freak them out.

"I'm Jonathan and this my wife Sylva."

"Nice to meet you. Wish it were under better circumstances."

"I hear you." Silence for a second. "Do you know why we're here?"

"I can guess." Jackie admitted, then really wished she hadn't. It may get more complicated if they knew that she knew something.

Thankfully before Mim's parents could ask any further, Jack woke up.

He also groaned in pain as he came to, his head throbbing.

Jackie noticed that Mim's parents had reacted to Jack, showing that they could see him. Although, after Lupine that shouldn't be a surprise.

Jackie leaned her head forward to look at her ancestor. "How are you feeling snowman?"

"Like North jumped on my head." Jack groaned, and Jackie had to smile at that analogy.

"Hockey stick will do that."

Jack shifted into a proper sitting position and looked around. "Where are we?" Then something occurred to him and he looked around more frantically. "Where is my staff?!"

"No idea, on both of those questions." It was somewhat of a lie, but Jackie didn't want to share the fact that she knew where they were just yet. In this gloom she didn't know who might be listening.

Mim's parents were looking between the two ice wielders like they were watching a tennis match.

"Are you two, related?" Asked Sylva.

"Kind of." Answered Jackie, seeing, with a little amusement, that Jack was looking around for the fifth person he assumed they were talking about. "He's my, uncle." Jackie simplified it, there were several 'greats' in there.

"You look alike." Sylva noted.

"Wait, you're talking about me?" Asked Jack, wincing from his headache as he looked over at the other three.

"There's no one else here, Uncle Jack." Jackie teased. "I think."

Sylva shuddered. "I wish you hadn't said that."

"We're alive and unhurt." Said Jackie. "Whoever it is probably wants us to stay that way."

"Probably?" Sylva was looking like she might be panicking.

"I'm not psychic, just if they wanted us dead they'd have already done it."

"Not psychic." Jonathan said with a raised eyebrow. "But the ice thing?"

Busted.

"Yeah, that was me." Jackie admitted. "I thought the dizziness might be heat stroke, so I lowered the temperature, didn't know you were there."

"From the fire?" Asked Jack.

"Yeah, you getting it too?"

"A little."

"Well, we're going to be useful in a fight."

"Obviously you're feeling alright if you're using sarcasm."

"...My head hurts too much to think of a comeback."

Jackie leaned back against the rock wall, closing her eyes again. The dizziness and nausea were getting better, but she'd like to get out of here in case it got any worse.

"Now we're done bantering, we need a plan." Said Jackie, cracking her eyes open.

"You've still got your powers right?" asked Jack. "Freeze the ropes!"

"Yeah, because in doing so I won't subject the two normal people in room to temperatures that they can't possibly survive." Jackie retorted with heavy sarcasm.

"Localise it." Said Jack like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"In a space this small?"

"You just have to freeze the ropes, you don't have to freeze everything else. Just focus on them."

This was a side of Jack that Jackie hadn't seen in years, Jack's mentoring side. Contrary to Mim's jab earlier, Jack did have a mature side, it didn't show up often, but it was there.

"And I think you should stop there."

A familiar voice called out of the darkness. Jonathan and Sylva jumped, while Jack and Jackie turned their heads and glared.

The fire user stepped into the meagre light, and once again Jackie was struck by the uncanny resemblance to Nym and Mim. It was obvious who he was supposed to be, but the age just didn't match up.

The younger man had ditched his backpack, but still had his hockey stick strapped to his back. His coat his zipped up against the chill of the cave and he was holding a ball of fire in his hand to ward it off even further.

Jackie felt her hands shake at the small flame, but she was determined not to show how much it scared her. Although she did feel a small amount of satisfaction when she saw the bandage on his left arm.

"Look at what the cat dragged in." The fire user looked over the four hostages. "Or should I say, wolf?"

"I think you offended cats." Said Jackie, while Jack said at the same time "That's offensive to cats."

The two ice wielders looked at each other. "That was weird."

The pair leaned towards each other before they spoke at the same time again. "Will you stop doing that?!"

"SHUT UP!" Roared the fire user, throwing his free hand out and sending out a blast of raw heat towards the four of them, which Jackie managed to block with a wall of ice. It did melt, allowing some of the heat through, to the relief of Mim's parents, but it managed to block most of the heat blast.

The fire user withdrew his hand and began to wear a bitter smirk.

"Oh yeah, Head Davies, never could resist a chance to show off, could you?"

"Excuse me?" Asked Jackie, offended as she got rid of the wall. "Says the guy who bursts into flame."

"You know how fights work!" Snarled the fire user. "That was a distraction tactic."

"Well done. What do you want? A round of applause?"

The fire user growled. "You haven't changed at all."

"We've never met." Said Jackie, glowering at the fire user who was starting to pace. "I think I'd remember meeting someone like you."

The fire user stopped and looked at Jackie, a smirk on his face.

"No, you haven't met me. But I've met you."

"How the heck is that possible?" It was Jack's turn to speak up, and the fire user, knowing he held all the cards right now, pulled something out of the pocket of his black combats.

A crystal dangled from a broken, twine cord in his hand, spinning slightly. It had four planes, shaping it like kite or a diamond.

Jackie felt like she had seen something like that before. Alexander had brought up a concept for something similar in the last meeting after he and several other Descendants of Bunnymund felt a disturbance in the time stream. It was supposed to hold one of the three Lights of Time should they disappear and there were chances of them falling into the wrong hands.

How did this guy have one?

Jackie had the answer, but she didn't want to say it.

Jack wasn't as impressed by the crystal. "It's pretty, but is that it?"

The fire user spun the crystal around, still looking at Jackie. "The Head's figured it out, haven't you? Since you're so clever."

Three heads turned to Jackie as she just stared at the crystal.

"It's designed to hold one of the three Lights of Time." Jackie said haltingly, not bothering to even try and pronounce the names of the three lights, she would fail amazingly at it. "Except we only got the concept for them a day or so ago. We haven't even had the time to even make them."

Jackie raised her eyes to the fire user. "Meaning, you've already used one of the lights. The Light of the Past most likely."

Jack narrowed his eyes, "You used Ancaerdem? Who the heck are you?"

The fire user started to laugh, but it didn't have any real humour, it was a dark, bitter laugh that sent shivers up the spines of all those in attendance.

"If you're so clever, Guardian, work it out."

However, it was Jackie who spoke next.

"Descendant of Mimic, from the future."

"And the brain box figures it out again!" Cried the Descendant, half laughing, half angry.

"Then stand down Descendant!" Cried Jackie, in last effort to calm the situation down. "You can't be from that far in the future, so would most likely answer to me, so stand down. You've done enough."

"I've only just started!" Snarled the Descendant of Mimic. "And I'm done with your arrogance, thinking that just because you're a Head everyone has to listen to you!"

He shoved the crystal in his pocket, charged over and held a lit finger in Jackie's face, watching in delight has her pupils contracted in fear, despite clearly being determined not to show it. He could almost sense it coming off her, a trait he normally hated, but now felt a lot of satisfaction, and annoyance that the Head of the Descendants of Jack Frost was so easily afraid.

Jackie did her best not to flinch at the flame, it was tiny, but it's heat was still painful. She could feel the closest body part to it, her nose, starting to burn. The dizziness and nausea had all but faded by this point, but she couldn't help but watch the candle sized flame right in front of her, snakes of fear twisting and dancing in her gut.

Jack leaned forward as far as he could without toppling over and glared at the teen that currently threatening his ex student.

"Leave her alone!" He cried, knowing full well why and how much Jackie was afraid of fire, but the Descendant of Mimic ignored him.

"I didn't have to bring you here, you know." He hissed at Jackie. " I could have just left you for the other three are useful, you are personal gain. All those years of you telling me what to do, telling me to uphold my ancestor's values of balance. You have no idea how good it felt to use fire, an element you can't stand."

The fire user withdrew, but kept his finger lit, making sure he had Jackie's full attention. "I' probably won't kill you, you're not worth it, I have bigger fish to fry. On the other hand, there's someone who would dearly love to see you ripped to shreds." He said, smirking, and it took little imagination on Jackie's part on who he meant. Being in the same place as Mim's parents and the mutt comment was more than enough to work out that Lupine and this Descendant were working together.

"But, I'm not going to do it now. Might wait a little while, see how far things will go before it gets to that point."

"Who the hell are you?" Asked Jackie, almost letting out a Taboo like growl.

"I never thought you'd ask." The Descendant of Mimic grinned. "My name is Colin Louten, son of Calvin Louten."


	9. Chapter 9

**9-Where is He?!**

"Where is he! Where is he!" Mim screamed as Bunny held onto her arms to keep her from causing major damage to person or place alike. They had broken the news the minute they noticed the panicked neon yellow in her eyes. She was not handling this well.

She was screaming and writhing with tears streaming down her face. Tooth was at face level trying to calm her down as Bunny restrained her. Calvin and Claire came running in at the noise, which was echoing off the walls and reverberating her distress into the hearts of them all.

Sandy caught Calvin running and forced him back into his room with a giant wall of sand. He would not be productive right now. He sealed the curtain despite Calvin's pounding on the wall and went back to help handle the situation. Mim's tears began to take shape and lash around at everyone. Sometimes freezing or boiling they pulsed with energy. It was enough to send the normally unflappable Taboo running for the hills.

"What's happening to her?" Claire took to the air and zoomed to dodge the wild whips of water. Mim had stopped struggling and was now kneeling on the floor, breath coming in gasps that followed the pulsing energy.

"It is a part of her spirit. In same way that winter deaths put Jack into dark depressive mood, very strong emotion can escape Mim and the trapped emotion energy will explode!" North explained as they all surrounded her.

"Well how do we fix it?!" Claire was not used to this chaos. The sheer power immortals wielded always had side effects that were negative. Tooth could sometimes have periods where she was lost in a memory and had to find her way out. But the Guardians were ancient and knew how to handle this. Jack had practice too, handing the "dark winter" side of himself. But Mim was young and her great self control had limits.

"We have to separate her from the emotional energy, but only she can do it. As long as the energy uses her body, it will have power over her powers." Bunny yelled as tried to look at Mim's eyes. They were a mix of panic and sadness.

"Honey, come on!" Tooth wrapped Mim in her arms, "You can master it! You know how to do this. Let the energy go!"

The pulses came slower and slower and the water splattered on the floor as Mim lay on the ground, simply crying. Taboo carefully padded back in while Claire landed next to her ancestor and asked quietly.

"Does this happen often?"

"No," said Tooth, "It doesn't. Her own emotions are volatile as she is an emotion spirit, but she can manage the flow. It was the worry of all of us that flowed straight at her and she couldn't contain it. She can feel our strongest emotions and to some degree control them, but they can control her too."

Tooth put a hand on her shoulder, but Mim had stopped crying and was sitting, dry eyed and cold. Her hands balled into fists and then released.

"Wha-What happened? Did I lose control again!" she was reclaiming her body and she looked mad enough to kill.

"Sheila. It's okay to feel. You don't need to beat yourself up for what just happened." Bunny reminded her. She was trying to shut down. She blamed herself for losing control.

"I know that. But I lost control and I could've hurt someone." Mim was twisting into a knot inside herself, suppressing her emotions, shutting them all down.

"I can hurt people when my animal instincts take control of me. Yes I can control it some, but not all the

way, neither can you."

"I always hurt when I lose control. I hurt everyone."

"We all have side effects. We love you anyway."

Mim released. It felt better to have them say it. Within the next hour, she was herself, as the emotional waves stabilized and the effects of everyone's emotions possessing her wore off. Her body was her own again and that was how she liked it. She was working on blocking her empathy so this didn't happen, but she was gonna feel everyone around her sometimes. She just seethed at herself for it.

"Alright, where do we go, they could be anywhere?" Claire asked.

"I'll go check out the battle area, with Taboo, we might find some scents or clues." Bunny suggested. Mim went with them to show them where it was. Everyone was angry and they wanted to get to who did this. Mim had already threatened to disfigure this guy's face.

The fight, despite being brief, had ravaged the entire area. It had only been a small clearing in the wood. Now it was a crater, filled with ashes and blackened rock. It was near the edge of a pond, where Mim had bent water from. A few trees had been felled in the fight, but most were simply blackened and charred with their bark burnt away, leaving a roasted wood expanse.

Patches were moist from where the ice had melted. How by moon were they going to get anything from this? Mim turned into a dog and tried to sniff only to revert and cough from the ashes that blew on the steady breeze. Bunny hopped to where the burn marks had originated from in rings of hot death. Looking down he picked up a small scrap of burnt plant matter. Taboo sniffed around by Bunny's feet, her nose crinkling more and more in distaste.

"Have you found something?" Mim was reading the ground. Stepping lightly on the dust and earth, she followed two long gaps that were laying in the ashes.

"Yeah. This plant don't grow 'round here. It does grow down South by the town of Tanglewood though. Not even a tunnel away from Burgess." Bunny held the specimen in his paw, where flame had curled it into a small brittle mass of fiber.

"By looks of the way the dust settled, someone dragged Jack and Jackie to someplace, but either lifted them, or portaled away, because…" she pointed to the drag marks, "these end in the middle of the woods.

"I may know where." Taboo looked up from her musings on the scent in the middle of the field.

"Do share." Mim asked.

"I was 'born' in a pathetic cave where that dog's litters and pups all visit and use. I would know its stink anywhere."

"Well then I guess it will be a 'happy' return for you." Mim scowled as she prepared to return.

Bunny decided to go back by tunnel with Taboo, but Mim wanted to fly. She needed some space.

Back in the Main Cavern, plans and ideas bounced around as they tossed tactical options for how to deal with this unknown foe.

Sandy mentioned that his sand might turn to glass when close enough to him which would be an advantage they had, since they might be able trap him in a cage he fused. Was there a way that they could a large water source close enough to him that Mim could bend enough to douse him? North's swords were forged of stardust so fire couldn't so much as scratch them. Bunny's boomerangs were enchanted so fire was no issue to them either.

Mim had explained the difficulties with getting close to him and how knocking him out could hinge on that. So far it only looked like Mim could get to him, but she had argued that they needed more than her, even if she could do it alone.

"Don't forsake the element of surprise." Tooth brought up.

"But we shouldn't depend on it either." Claire added.

"Mim stay hidden, come out if you need to, but you are the ace up our sleeve." North ordered everyone up, "Bunny and I will be the raw fight power while Sandy tries to restrain out fiery comrade. Tooth and Taboo will work on getting them free and out of the cave. Da?"

Everyone nodded and so Bunny tunneled them to Tanglewood. upon arrival they all took a deep breath. Let the battle begin.

"You're gonna be burnt toast, idiot." Mim whispered. It was time to fight fire with fire.


	10. Chapter 10

**10-Plunge into the Fiery Pit**

The cave was a tiny gap in one of a group of five hills, hiding behind a natural bulge in the hill which Taboo found. The mouth was no large gap, which would make retreat and strike tactics nigh on impossible, but they could all manage to enter. North had a little trouble, having to duck his head and breathe in to get through the dark passage.

Mim went in first, disguised as a tangible shadow, since intangibility and invisibility were never to be used together. It had BAD consequences. Creeping along the upper wall, she stretched her right arm into the deep cavernous space. She faded the rest of the way in and pressed herself against a rock wall that had a dozen stalagmites protruding from the floor. On the other side of the cave she could see her love and Jackie tied to similar stalagmites. She looked around to see if her entrance had been noticed.

She yearned to go help them, but that was not her duty, and shadows have no voices so she couldn't call to him and hear him call back to her.

Scrunching her eyes shut, she made her way deeper into the darkness, as not to be blinded by the sudden lack of light. When her eyes opened she could see the walls clearly. Scratches gouged out gashes in the walls and it reeked of wet dog. She could feel small scraps of fur under her dark fingertips. She spotted him with Lupine, the light of his self fuelled torch was so bright she cringed.

"Take them and go." he commanded the beast.

"Why? We have them and with me we are sure to win!" he tossed his head his ruff was raised.

"It isn't time yet! Don't press me!" the young man forced out through clenched teeth.

"Fine! But when you fall because for your intent of precision, then I will leave you here and return myself, your leg and the jewel in my mouth if I have to. And the Davies girl! Don't forget my fee boy!" he spat and vanished through a corner in the rock she had not seen.

Mim wanted to leap and slaughter the wolf, but the only thing she did was flinch. The other one turned and for a terrifying breath she thought he saw her. But he turned back the way she had come and smiled.

He must have heard North enter!

She followed him back towards the mouth of the cavern…

A blast of fire sent her reeling back, for a shadow will smother at the light, she felt her limbs going numb and she rolled behind a boulder where she had time to reform. Noise erupted behind her back. She couldn't see what was going on as a shadow, she knew.

Melding with the rock, she clung to the ceiling and crawled over the battle.

Bunny cross threw the boomerangs, but the boy leaned back, allowing them to pass over him without a scratch. A blast of fire righted him and he returned the boomerangs with flaming hockey pucks, slapshotted across the floor, forcing the Guardians to skip and jump as he sent a blade of wide fire at them, his hockey stick swinging.

North, Bunny and Sandy were defending Tooth who was flying around and around, trying to gain ground towards Jackie, who was closest.

Every time she attempted to move in, a puck, thrown from his flaming hands forced her back. The pucks ricocheted and knocked off the wall, making everyone stay on their toes as projectiles came from the front and back.

"I see you have called the cavalry Davies!" he was laughing manically, blasting them back.

"You are dead! Hah!" Jackie yelled over the tumult, a slightly mad grin on her face. Jack was wilting in the heat, as was she, but she could tolerate slightly more since part of her was human. A snake of fire silenced her tongue as it slithered her way. She dropped the grin and squirmed away, not taking her eyes off it. Tooth's wings were suddenly fanning away the flames with a wind that made Colin brace a foot behind him.

He stopped smiling and dropped the act that it was all a joyous game for him.

He pushed a thin wall of fire toward them, as soon as it cleared, he had advanced behind it and nailed Bunny over the head with a slashing blow from end of his stick. Following through the circular motion, he hooked it under North's feet and sent him sprawling.

Sandy wrapped his whips around the boy's wrists and yanked him to the left, and into a wall, but Colin turned his shoulder into it and winced as he collided. He grabbed the whip and melted the sand and the cuffs.

Jackie noticed that Jack had managed to freeze his ropes, before he had succumb to the heat that Colin radiated, just meters in front of him. Concentrating she tried to splinter them, she saw them crack, before fire nearly engulfed her. She gritted her teeth as a scream built up in her throat and curled up, away from the fire.

Sandy formed a barricade and the three men of the Guardians moved in.

"Your flames are just show boy!" North called. He had a point. Colin's fire seemed to be either bright and flashy, or waves of deadly heat, but not both. Colin flinched at being called boy. He HATED that.

"Are they now?!" Colin yelled. The light show stopped, but a smothering heat filled the cave. Sweat beaded on North's forehead, and Bunny's fur dampened. The sand was melting.

They all backed away from the molten wall.

"Now Sandy!" Bunny yelled.

The hot, golden wall split and snaked its way around the frenzied fire wielder in a closely wired cage. From above, Mim saw that it would never harden fast enough. In a flash she shot ice at it, falling from the ceiling in the process. As she scrambled to hide once more, Colin hit the cage in fury. His hands alone melted through the bars.

"Is that all you have?! You've grown old and pathetic if I can deal with you. Alone!" Colin was throwing raw power at them. With a surge of power he shattered the glass cage.

The shards flew in all directions, razor blades shot through the air like needle thin arrows.

Save for a slash under his great blue eyes, North's coat had stopped most from hitting his flesh. The same could not be said for his friends. He watched as Bunny tried to block with his guarders, only to be sliced on his arms and his sides. Tooth's wings had been mostly unharmed but her feathers lay scattered as they had been cut from her body.

Sandy's creations could be seen with specks of blood. Mim lay unseen against a wall, nursing a cut on her shoulder that was bleeding like heck.

"Now let me deal with our unhappy hostage here." he grabbed Jack with splintered his frosted ropes. He was conscious, barely.

"Trying to help your friends was a stupid move." he hissed in Jack's ear. He believed that Jack had cooled the cage of molten glass. Mim watched in horror.

Using the distraction, Jackie froze her own ropes and shot a blast of ice at Colin's chest. It hit him and he stumbled and grunted in clear pain, but he still held Jack fast in hand.

"Nuh uh uh oh venerable Guardians." He shook his head, making his hair move in front of his eyes.

The Guardians all stood as their enemy formed a flame laser thin and inferno hot. Jack tried to wrench free, but his strength was failing.

"I won't, not just yet." Colin squelched the fire, "I see you left my dear aunt at HQ" he drawled out the word aunt.

"Bloody dodger." Bunny seethed at a safe distance. Jackie staggered but stood tall.

"He means Mim, he's her brother's son...from the future." she let the words fly, glaring at the Descendant, but not allowing the same level of anger in her voice. At that same moment, Mim had launched herself from the shadows and had hit Colin with the force of a train. Jack ran towards the Guardians who tossed him his staff that Mim had thrown at them. She had found it in the back of the cave.

Tooth got the two icicles out to the air where they could breathe.

"Get out!" Mim screeched, "He's mine."

The other Guardians tried to defy but both her fire and Colin's chased them to the entrance.

Mim tackled him around the waist and he fell to the floor, surprised by such a blunt approach. He rolled over and pinned her, but her legs latched around his neck and brought his head smashing towards the stone ground.

He caught himself with his hands, but she was already up on her feet, and a barrage of magma rocks were raining down.

He deflected them with his hockey sticks, knocking them to the sides. Mim was fuelled by rage and fury, as she used no weapon, and bore down on him with flame and fist.

"Don't wanna hurt your family now do we?" Colin goaded her. He was beginning to tire as her attacks never ceased. He was getting flustered as it became apparent that she wasn't even trying. She was just moving in and in, each punch, kick and swing heralded by a blast of fire.

"You are not my family and I have no problems, sending you to the fire where you belong."

Her final hit set him on the ground where she hovered on waves of pulsing heat, and lifted him by the throat.

"I wasn't talking about me."

"You are going to pay, and I will roast you here and now." Her eyes were glowing red like blood and she screamed with breath that shimmered with smoke and dragon poison.

"What will the boy you just went berserk for say to that?" he was rasping now. His mouth would have to save him now, one of the many things he had inherited from her, the girl who looked younger than him, dangling him in a pit of fire.

"You're losing control, and you know it! You know that you hurt people when you lose it and there is nothing you can do. I think Jack will object as you heartlessly crisp your nephew. Guardians don't go that far do they? Or are you just a danger to everyone and they haven't seen it yet?" he kept going on.

Mim's mind flashed back to HQ, where 10 minutes of blackout time on her part had been terror and pain for everyone else. Her emotions cut. She dropped Colin and he fell gasping to the floor.

"You know I could kill you." she said, walking to retrieve him again. The fire gone, just as herself.

"But you won't. Not if you want to hear what Jackie knows." He sent a rocket of fire into the roof and rocks cascaded in, with dust clogging the air. Mim leapt away and landed on her stomach. The cave had collapsed with him on the other side, where she knew there was another way out. She punched the wall in frustration. He'd known how to get in her head. No one could do that. She wanted to split his skull for it.


	11. Chapter 11

**11-Return to the Base**

Jackie's head shot up from it's drooped position as Mim stormed out of the cave, looking ready to kill, but oddly calm. Or that may have been Jackie's blurring eyesight, she wasn't sure.

She shook her head for the millionth time to try and clear it. The past few minutes had been incredible, and incredibly painful. She had fought alongside the Guardians in the past and had even sparred against them, but had never actually seen them fight, and it had been awesome.

The not so great bit had been the heat, by moon, the heat. She'd done her best not to drop at the battle scene, but she was glad when Toothiana had carried her out when she did, Jackie had been this close to collapsing.

"Jackie."

Jackie focused on the Guardian of Balance, who was only looking at her. No hellos, no how are you's, Mim was all business.

"What happened in there?"

Jackie frowned, "That's, that's best saved for when we get back to the base."

"Why?" Mim's voice was calm, and any possible anger went right over her head, but the other Guardians and even Taboo noticed how close Mim was to exploding.

"Claire's going to want to hear this too."

Jackie moved to get to her feet, helped up by Taboo. Jack was looking better than when Colin had held him hostage earlier, but he still need Toothiana and Mim's help, the latter finally coming to her senses to help her boyfriend.

"So, we're headin' back to your base?" Asked Bunnymund, inspecting a healing cut inflicted by the flying glass from earlier.

"Yeah."

Jackie moved to make an ice bridge, mentally preparing herself for the journey, it was a good couple of hours by air. However, both Taboo and Bunnymund had other ideas.

Taboo growled and practically tackled the young woman's legs to the point where Jackie fell onto the ice tiger's back.

"You are not walking anywhere, let alone skating." Taboo growled, letting a real world growl that made sure Jackie didn't question it.

"And, I made a Tunnel 'ere." Bunnymund finished. "You and Frostbite are restin', got it?"

"Calm down Kangaroo." Said Jack, his voice not sounding all that strong.

"Calm down!? Ya gotta be jokin'!"

"Bunny is right." Rumbled North. "You and Jackie are exhausted. We go to base Bunny's way."

Bunnymund raised his foot. "Anymore arguments?" When he got none he tapped his foot against the ground and the eight of them disappeared into the Tunnel.

The short ride through the Tunnel gave Jackie enough time to wake up a bit more. They popped up through the floor in the Main Cavern, and immediately klaxons started wailing.

"Intruder alert. Intruder alert."

"Override!" Yelled Jackie irritably, why hadn't Bunnymund just joined up with one of the pre-existing Tunnels and gotten her to open the way in?

"Please identify."

"DHJF002."

"Recognised, Jacqueline Davies. Alert, overridden."

The klaxons shut off and everyone let go of their ears while Jackie glared at Bunnymund, who was trying to the clear the ringing from his ears.

"Next time, I suggest the front door."

"Ya don't say."

"As always, follow impending disaster and you will find Jackie at the end of it." Said Claire dryly as she flew over to the group. She frowned when she took in the state of Jack and Jackie.

"I don't even want to hear it." She before Jackie could make a joke about Claire sounding human. "I suggest both of you go to the Medical Cavern, there's a couple of Medics waiting. We'll get a report later."

"No!" Cried Mim, probably a little louder than she had initially intended. She looked at Jackie.

"Colin said you knew something. What is it?"

Jackie levered herself into a sitting position on Taboo. "I know a lot of things." Jackie quickly wanted to take that back as Mim's eyes went bright red. Now was not the time or the place for a smart mouth.

"There's several things he might be talking about, but I can guess what you want to know. Your parents, they were with us."

"So, our fire user is working with Lupine." Said Claire, piecing it together.

"Yep, just before you guys showed up Lupine pulled them into the shadows. Presumably taking them away by shadow travel."

"Where!?" Cried Mim.

"I don't know! Do you think they were just going to tell us that?!" Jackie also yelled

"Jacqueline! That's enough! Get a hold of yourself." Barked Claire.

"What is going on?" Calvin Louten suddenly appeared in the Main Cavern from the Sleeping Quarters, which took Jackie by surprise.

"Jackie was about to explain." Said Claire pointedly, before turning back to Jackie. "Did you find out who this fire user is?"

Jackie paused before answering, trying to figure out how best to word it. "A Descendant of Mimic. Calvin Louten's son." She added before Claire could interject. "He used Anca… Ancaer, the Light of the Past to get here, presumably Lupine as well, given how he was acting."

Clavin's brain had stopped functioning after the word 'son', so everyone else carried on without him.

"Ancaerdem." Claire corrected for Jackie.

"Yeah, that one."

Claire shook her head. "Jackie, we have to call in the others."

"No we don't."

"I know you and Jason don't get along, but we can't leave them out of this anymore. I am calling a meeting while you get patched up and get some food. I will meet you and Taboo in the Council Chamber."

"Hey, anybody wanna catch me up to speed here?" Now that Calvin had recovered his higher brain functions, he stood frowning in the corner, arm crossed and broody.

"We don't have time!" Mim cut him down in an instant, "We have important stuff to deal with, and you are going to stay out of it." she wasn't raising her voice, but no one was brave enough to look her in the eye after the fight today. The blood red that stained the white side of her top added to the menacing effect.

"He might as well at this point." Claire stepped in, "We can always memory wipe him anyway."

"That is not a happy prospect." he realized.

Jackie winced, thinking that what Claire just said was probably not the best thing to have said, but too late now. Unless they really were going to wipe his memory. It was definitely possible, but Jackie couldn't help but wonder if that was a bit over the top. Then again, she'd probably get out voted on that one.

"In front of you stand the Guardians of Childhood." Said Claire, starting her explanation to Calvin. "We don't tend to use their titles, and I imagine you can guess who is who. Each one is chosen by the Man in the Moon to protect children because they each represent a trait to protect in children. What happened with Mimic is not my story to tell, however I can say that she no longer goes by Nym and is now the Guardian of Balance. When someone becomes immortal they usually leave a family behind. This varies from immortal to immortal, not all of us are actually related, it was more chance than anything. Those families carry the legacy of that immortal and usually inherit similar powers, and we call ourselves Descendants. I, for example, am a Descendant of Toothiana, or the Tooth Fairy, which is why I have these wings."

Claire gestured to the dragonfly like wings on her back, which she brought up as a demonstration.

"Every Descendant is born with these powers and form groups with their fellow Descendants."

Usually. Thought Jackie slightly bitterly, but now was not the time to bring that up.

"We, as a group, are known as the Human Order of Guardians, a mirror group, if you will, to the Guardians." Continued Claire. "We tend to work separately from the Guardians, but in the rare occasions our interests clash we work together, although since the Guardians are immortal and we aren't, we consider them superior to us and as such we cannot order them the same way we can order other Descendants."

The Guardians shifted a little uncomfortably at this, but Claire either didn't notice or decided to ignore it.

"And, at the moment, we are working together against a common threat, which you don't need to worry about right now, as long as you stay in this base for the time being." Finished Claire. "Any questions?"

"So, you mean to tell me that my baby sister, the one who managed to be both a freak and a brat, is a powerful being that outranks you?" he seemed to loathe being told he was under her, but denying it held no grip now.

"Can you stop calling her brat!" Jack, despite being about to fall over, got up in Calvin's face, staff glowing.

"What are you, the Guardian of Skinny? She's my sister so stay out of this." Calvin gave Jack a little push to which Jack responded in kind, except that he iced Calvin's feet so he waved his arms around for balance.

"I'm the guy who took actual care or her, something you never got or ever will get a chance to do." Jack looked ferocious and ticked off.

"Oh ho, sis, looks like you finally found an idiot as crazy as you are. Icy hearts freeze together don't they?" he stood, aware he couldn't move his feet, despite the fact that they were getting very cold.

"Watch your mouth before I freeze it shut!" Jack appeared ready to follow through on that except for that Mim walked up and smacked both of them across the face. It set them equal, but afterward, Mim kissed Jack full on the mouth, arms draped around his neck, his on her waist, before melting the ice on Calvin's feet and walking away hand in hand with Jack.

Calvin now knew the score.

Jackie watched the two lovebirds disappear into the Medical Cavern. "Ouch. Talk about being abandoned for another boy!"

"I'm just glad Mim settled it when she did. I was getting ready to roar."

Bunnymund practically whimpered and held his ears, which were still ringing from the klaxons.

I was all for telling Jack and Mim to get a room when they started kissing. Said Jackie to Taboo, deciding not to say that outloud. Not that she really knew the implications of 'getting a room' having friends several years younger or many years older than you did wonders for the innocence.

"Alright, enough drama." Said Claire with a long suffering sigh. "Medical check, food, meeting. In that order Jackie. And I also suggest that you look up the word 'tact' in the dictionary."

"Burn." Taboo snickered and Jackie rolled her eyes in response.

"Don't you need to work on your bedside manner? Doctor?" Asked Jackie.

"And Jackie hits back, right in the profession!"

"I'm considering all options." Claire raised an eyebrow. "Now go."

Chuckling to herself Taboo started walking in the direction of the Medical Cavern before Jackie could even get off. She didn't quite trust Jackie to walk there herself.

Jackie finally got a moment to herself in the Mess Hall, with her torso wrapped in fresh bandages. There had been a few minors burns which would heal, but the one from the puck would scar, definitely adding to the collection, although it would be the first one on her front. The final injuries were rope burns on her wrists, but those were mainly being left alone.

She'd also made a visit to her room in the Sleeping Quarters, putting on some fresh clothes. The shirt had been burnt and bloodied and the jeans had been covered in ash and rock dust. She still kept the hoodie though.

No longer needing Taboo for support Jackie stood in front of the metal canteen like bar which distributed food in the base. It ran on a spell that Jackie would never know and had been designed to handle up to seven hundred people at once, so it had little trouble of handling Jackie's request of chicken pasta, several glasses of water and a massive bowl of ice cream.

Jackie's mouth watered when the ice cream appeared from beneath the counter. She loved ice cream.

"I thought you were going to go veggie." Taboo quipped as Jackie sat at the end of one of the many long tables spanning the Mess Hall. In fact, it looked a lot like a typical school canteen, just, times ten.

"Heat of the moment. Didn't think I was serious did you?" Asked Jackie as she started to eat, then stopped. There was something she'd forgotten to do for the past day or so.

Jamie didn't know what was happening. He was going to kill her.

With a sigh Jackie pulled out her phone and quickly found his number.

He picked up with seconds.

"Jackie!"

"Hey."

"Where the hell have you been? I was this close to calling the rest of the Branch and the police! In that order!"

Jackie ran a hand across her face. "I am really, really sorry, things just got a bit mad."

"I guessed." Jamie sighed. "Do you know when you're going to be back?"

"I have no idea."

"...Alright. I know you have Head, stuff. How badly beat up are you?"

"Oh, I'm going to be really sore when I get back."

"Sore enough to beat me at sparring? You and me, meeting place with the practice swords when you're done."

Jackie smirked. "Jamie Bennett, that sounds like a date."

"Maybe it is."

"Alright, challenge accepted. See you there."

"Good. I assume that with Tina and Sally in Europe and you doing who knows what, the bookshop won't be opening for a bit?"

"You assume correctly. Unless you want to take over until they get back?"

"No thanks, I have college."

"Figured. See you soon."

"See you, and, don't die."

"Do my best not to. Love you."

"Love you too." And Jamie hung up.

"And you were talking about Jack and Mim getting a room." Quipped Taboo.

"Shut up." Jackie shoved the tiger good naturedly, before turning back to her food. She started eating as quickly as she could, covering each bite in frost to cool it down. Just a part of her amazing biological quirks.

Less than half an hour later Jackie was in the Council Chamber, sitting in her designated seat.

A long table sat in the earth walled room, surrounded on all sides by chairs. The ones closest to the double doors, and the majority, were normal, brown chairs. However, six at the far end were not normal.

On the left hand side stood, from the head of the table down, a red chair, a green chair and grey chair. On the opposite side sat a purple, yellow and pale blue chair respectively, each one with a cushion and a high back. There was no chair at the head of the table. There didn't need to be.

Jackie was sat in the blue chair with Taboo lying next to her, while Claire was sitting in the purple. In the red sat a man who could not look more like North if he tried, the only real differences were, height, girth and the fact that this man looked more serious than North has ever been in his life. This was Jason Morris, Head of the Descendants of North.

In the green chair sat a tall, lanky man in his early forties, with curly brown hair and green eyes. His face was tanned and his nose constantly twitched. This was Alexander Banks, Head of the Descendants of Bunnymund.

In the yellow chair sat a well dressed short man with olive skin, blonde hair and shining blue eyes. Behind him sat a wheelchair, which he had used his Dreamsand to get out of so he could sit in his seat. He had been paralysed from the waist down by various lightning strikes during the battle in Melbourne.

This was Samson Tramarco, Head of the Descendants of Sandman.

The only one missing was Tracey, the leader of the pack of Descendants that was affiliated with HOG, but Claire insisted that she was on her way. Tracey hadn't been present at the last meeting, and the only reason that she was even coming to this one because she was the most knowledgeable about shadow travel.

Finally a woman a few years Jackie's junior appeared out of the shadows, thankfully not setting off klaxons. The system had been set to allow shadow travel from Tracey.

She wore her russest red hair in a tight ponytail and her grey eyes swept across the present Heads as she made her way towards the grey seat, marred by a vertical scar down her left eye.

She was still dressed a little oddly, deciding today to go with a neon yellow jumper, jeans that looked slightly too big and a combat boots.

The reason for this fashion statement was because by nature the Descendants of Lupine are nomadic, therefore they had to grab what they could.

"Sorry I'm late." Said Tracey, sitting down. "We were recovering from the eclipse, and we got distracted by some wolf scents in Boston."

Jackie winced and Tracey honed in on it. "Something to do with you?"

"You could say that."

"Now we're all here." Said Jason. "Would you two of you finally tell the rest of us what has been happening? I walk in and find that all six of the Guardians are here and we have a non Descendant in the Sleeping Quarters!"

"Jason." Said Alexander warningly with the typical Australian accent. "Watch your head, we all want to know."

"I think Jackie would be the best to explain this one." Said Claire, and Jackie glared at her for dropping her in it.

"Okay, it goes like this…" Jackie began her explanation for the past day or so. Starting and when Lupine attacked her and ending when the Guardians had got her and Jack back from Tanglewood.

Claire chipped in points every now and again, but it was mainly Jackie who told the story.

She finally stopped and took a drink from a water bottle she'd filled up in the Mess Hall as the rest of the group let it all sink in.

"The little sod is using my design." Alexander looked livid that the idea he'd been working on had already been used. Time travel notwithstanding

Tracey however had the first question.

"What makes you so sure that the Lupine that attacked you is from the future?"

"I can't say I know him that well, but whenever I've come across him, Lupine never seemed that, angry. I know he doesn't like me, but he didn't act even close to that when we saw him in Melbourne." Jackie shook her head. "That was like an anger that has festered over years. More years than I've known him."

"There are more pressing questions." Said Samson, speaking for the first time with an Italian accent. "First, where are Mr and Mrs Louten? Second, what are we going to do about this future, rogue, Descendant?"

"I have a feeling you'd find the Descendant with the Louten's." Said Jason. "From what Jackie's said the Louten's were bait. Presumably for Mimic."

"Yeah, but we don't know why." Said Jackie, frustrated. She was frustrated with the whole thing, and only now was it showing. "We have no motivation for this guy, or what his limits are."

"Okay, before we get too focused on this Colin." Said Tracey. "I can at least help you with finding the Loutens's."

"You can?" Asked Alexander.

"If they went by shadow travel, we might be able to trace it. If not we can go by smell. I know their address, you were the ones who asked us to look in when we were in the area."

"How long will it take you?" Asked Jason.

"Theoretically they could be anywhere on the planet, so it might take a while, but if they're hostages they will probably be okay for that long."

"Okay, you get on that once this meeting is over." said Jason. "What about this Descendant? Any information on him is going to be in the future, and we can't go there."

"Okay, I haven't gotten that far in the files." Admitted Jackie. "Why can't we do that?"

"As Descendants, we are incredibly volatile, and we don't know if time travel will affect us in any way." Explained Claire. "We are mortal, and yet have the powers of immortals, in many ways we don't make sense. Also we are, not forbidden, but it is generally good courtesy for us not to approach Tempro, except in extreme circumstances."

"Does this not count?"

"By extreme we mean world ending." Said Jason. "This isn't even close to that."

"Have we all forgotten that there are Guardians here? Ask them!" Cried Taboo, forgetting that Jackie was the only one in the room who could hear her.

"Good point Taboo." Said Jackie before turning to the rest of the Heads. "The Guardians are considering this their problem too, since this is Mimic's family. Have we considered asking them?"

Jason's face practically paled at the idea, the only Head still intimidated by the Guardians.

"Bunnymund can time travel." Mused Alexander.

"You can't be serious!?" Cried Jason. "We can't ask them to do this! It's not our place!"

"I think they'd be pretty annoyed if we left them out." countered Jackie. "Speaking of which, why aren't they in here?"

"We decided that it was primarily a Head matter." Said Claire. "And Mimic looked a little…"

"Like she needed some space?" Jackie finished.

"To be aloooone with Jack." Teased Taboo and Jackie just stared at Taboo.

"I'm pretty sure that's not what they're doing!" Cried Jackie, her face flushing scarlet once the implications clicked and Taboo practically roared with laughter.

"Do we want to know what she said?" Asked Alexander.

"No! No you really don't!" Jackie insisted, which made Taboo laugh even harder.

"Alright, order! Order in the Council!" Called Jason and Taboo finally managed to calm down, leaving a flustered Jackie and confused table of Heads.

Jason looked down the table at Jackie. "Jackie, since you are the most friendly with the Guardians-"

"Can you please re-phrase that?" Asked Jackie, wincing. "What Taboo said isn't going to leave my brain for a while."

Jason raised an eyebrow, but thankfully didn't question any further.

"Okay, since you get on best with the Guardians, I suggest you ask them. We can disband for the time being while you ask so Tracey can get looking for the Loutens. We don't have to re-form the meeting once you get an answer, but for the goodness sake tell us what's going on this time!"

"Gotcha. I'll ask Bunnymund." Agreed Jackie.

"So, meeting adjourned for now?" Asked Samson.

There was rumbled mutual agreement and the seven of them left the room. Most of them dispersed to either the Sleeping Quarters, the Mess Hall or the Training Halls, Tracey shadow travelled back to her pack and Jackie began to approach the bored looking Guardians. She quickly got stopped by Alexander before he disappeared to the Training Halls.

"A word, Jackie?" He asked quietly, hoping that his ancestor wouldn't overhear.

"About what?"

"You sleeping okay after that?" Asked Alexander, and Jackie shrugged. He was worried about nightmares, which he also suffered from since the first time Lupine made himself known to HOG.

"Haven't had a chance to check, last time I slept I used Dreamsand."

"Don't blame ya. Losing like that and nearly drowning can't be good for, nightmares."

"I don't even want to think about it." Jackie shuddered.

"Anyway, you ever wanna talk, you know where I am."

"Likewise." Jackie frowned as she thought of something. "Do the other Heads get nightmares? After, that."

Alexander shrugged. "No idea. They never told me if they do."

"Makes sense, you don't everyone to know we might all be sleep deprived."

"Exactly. Anyway." Alexander moved to place his hand on Jackie's shoulder, then stopped halfway when he remembered that she didn't like that. "...You've got a job to do. I'm gonna go let off some steam."

"Pupils annoying you?"

"Like ya wouldn't believe." Alexander folded his arms and shook his head. "Great kids, but they can so annoying sometimes."

Jackie placed her hands in her hoodie pocket and shrugged. "Well, that's kids."

"What do you know about kids?"

"I used to babysit!" Jackie defended, trying not to laugh.

"You, babysat? When you were a teenager?"

"Yeah."

Alexander blinked, the expression of disbelief not leaving his face. "Sorry if I have a hard time believing that. I remember what you were like as a teenager."

"And I prefer not to. Not until I hit eighteen anyway."

Jackie shuddered and shook her head "Anyway, we're wasting time. See you later."

Alexander shook his head and walked off as Jackie approached the Guardians.

"Finally!" Cried Bunnymund, who was the first to notice Jackie walking up. Jack and Mim seemed to be having a conversation that shut out the rest of the world while the others quickly stopped whatever they were talking about and turned to Jackie.

"Okay, current plan is that Tracey's pack is going to look for Mr and Mrs Louten." Said Jackie, folding her arms, then instantly regretted it as her arms came into contact with the burn. "One problem we have is that we have no information on Colin. No motivations, no backstory, no idea of his limits. We assume that the only way we'd find that out is to travel to the future, except for Descendant that's not necessarily the best idea, and even if it wasn't it's frowned upon for us to approach Tempro unless it's an extreme case. As in, world ending extreme."

"I might be able ta help ya with that." Said Bunnymund and Jackie nodded.

"That's what we hoped you'd say."

Bunnymund shrugged. "We're pretty much in this together. Can't let you lot have all the fun."

"Okay, who are you and what have you done with Bunnymund?" Asked Jackie jokingly. "Because you were singing a very different tune when we first met."

"That was twelve years ago! Ya still remember that?"

"How could I forget?" Jackie was not likely to forget her first time at the Pole.

"Yes yes, reminiscing is nice and all." Interrupted North. "But, Bunny, you can't seriously be thinking of going alone?"

"Unless Mim can suddenly time travel, I think I'm gonna 'ave ta go solo."

Mim's head turned when her name was mentioned. "What's going on?"

"We're discussing on whether or not Bunny should time travel to the future to find out about Colin alone." Answered Tooth. "Any suggestions?"

Mim shook her head. "No way should you do something that shifty without backup..."

"Well, how is anyone gonna come with me?"

"Tempro?" Suggested Jack.

"Hey, you guys can go look for him. I don't think there's anything stopping you guys." Said Jackie.

"Whoa, if we're looking for Tempro, you're coming too." Said Jack suddenly.

"Why?"

"You've come this far with us. Might as well go the whole way. And I wouldn't want any other Descendant on my side!"

Jackie blinked. "I'm flattered. I-I'll have to ask the other Heads, and I won't be able to actually meet Tempro, but if you really want me along…"

"Okay, that's decided then." Said Jack, turning back to the group. "So, who to go with Bunny…?"

Sandy, who no one had noticed the entire conversation, suddenly pulled Taboo's tail, making the ice tiger let out a loud roar.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Taboo roared, turning quickly to face the tiny dream giver, who didn't look all that worried, despite the full sized tiger growling in his face.

"Taboo…" Said Jackie warningly as Taboo looked ready to maul the nearest living thing. "We've discussed this."

"He pulled my tail!"

"Your tail is still attached isn't it? Stop being such a baby." Jackie looked over to Sandman, who was signing quickly and furiously. Too quickly for Jackie to follow, but the Guardians were more used to his rapid fire delivery.

"You wanna come Sandy?" Asked Bunnymund, and Sandman nodded, relieved that someone was finally paying attention.

"Good for a stealth mission." Mused Jackie.

"So is decided!" Cried North. "We look for Tempro. To the sleigh!"

"Oh no." Groaned Jackie and Bunnymund at the same time, both remembering North's driving with equal trepidation. Taboo just whimpered, being utterly terrified of heights.

"H-hold on." Said Jackie before everyone left. "I've gotta let the other Heads know, and just in case I'll grab my armour. Be back in quarter of an hour."

Without waiting for an answer Jackie sprinted for the Sleeping Quarters. Things were going to get very interesting indeed.


	12. Chapter 12

**12-Bonjour , en Guard**

North had decided to have some fun over the Atlantic and now Mimic was holding Jackie in the sleigh with telekinesis and her glass bracelets. Bunny had just hunkered down on the lowest chair and gripped the seat for dear life.

"When will it stop!" Jackie wished over the howling wind in her ears. Her stomach wanted to turn inside out and she had only just eaten for the first time in over a day!

Jack had iced Taboo's paws to the floor of the sleigh but the tiger had mewled loudly the whole ride. Her claws were digging into the woodwork as she hid near the back of the sleigh.

"I'd tell you that you get used to it, but I'd rather not lie to you." Mim admitted as Jackie cut off the circulation to her hand.

"Thanks a lot." Jackie squeezed extra tight to couple with her sarcasm. Her armour, most of which she was wearing under her clothes, rattled and clunked with the sleigh's movements. Her helmet and gloves were also rattling, but they rattled in the dark green backpack that was currently frozen to her back.

"Oh and I didn't want to tell you about this part." Mimic inhaled sharply as the sleigh suddenly flipped and North dropped the reins and fell. Jack broke the ice supporting Taboo, and Mim grabbed Jackie.

She screamed.

Ages before the ground rushed up to meet them, Mim sprouted wings and their descent slowed abruptly, with Mim grasping Jackie and Jack holding Taboo with cryokinesis. The jolt knocked the wind out of Jackie but the open air restored it quickly enough. At least the crazy swinging and jumping had stopped. This was better, less of a roller coaster.

North yelled out as they all fell together.

"We split here! Mim and Jackie cover Paris area, Jack, take Normandy, I will be in Alsace, Bunny and Sandy will cover the large land area. Meet in Paris by nightfall!

North had a hang glider and soared out of the sight in the clouds. Jack waved and zipped off with Taboo. Bunnymund and Sandman drifted off in a sandy sailboat.

"Can we land now?" Jackie called up to her carrier Guardian.

Smiling, Mim folded her wings and they hurtled down, but the last 100 meters were a leisurely float as Mim kept her large angel wings open and wide.

"Must you do that?!" Jackie shuddered.

"Jack wears off on me." Mim justified with a giggle.

Once Jackie had hugged the sweet unmoving ground, Mim reminded her that they needed to fly again, but not too complicated since Paris was surrounded by fields, searching by air would be faster. Jackie gulped and then they laced arms again, flapping into the sky.

Jack approached a deserted beach. Flying up and down its length he was absolutely positive that Tempro would find it impossible to hide in the vast exposed area. Taboo ran across the sands. She bounded up the cliff sides and put her nose to the air.

"Can you smell anything?" Jack landed beside her, perched on the verge of falling over the side.

"Nothing but salt and sand. The Channel blocks almost any scent. I'll have examine closer." She said with determination.

"Alright. I'll look into the populated areas, where I think people may have some interesting opinions to give you."

"Oh haha invisible ice boy, I'll stay out here, where I'm invisible too." She sprinted down towards the end of the beach, to begin there and work her way back. Jack took up to the sky again.

Lilting around on gusts of wind, he blew over a large cemetery, where rows of white crosses stretched as far as the eye could see.

He remembered hearing about this, heck he had seen it, back in the day. He had seen men on that beach, running and yelling with guns. It was like an angry storm that washed up on the violent Atlantic waves.

He had ran away after that. He hadn't wanted to see.

But this was the outcome.

He breezed past the tall cliffs, twirling under a great stone arch. Shifts of air tumbled over the green cliff side like an invisible waterfall that you could never see, but only feel. Falling with them, they dragged over into the salty currents over the English channel. Spinning, he cast off and flew towards the village.

Taboo strode in the shadow of the giant walls of rock. Keeping close to the base of them, she felt the sand give and press under her paws. There were the smells of the shore, and the occasional whiff of humans, but spirits had a scent to them and of that she couldn't find anything.

A scuttling crab had grabbed Taboo's attention as it scrambled around in the sand. She had pounced on it, and released it, but the short release had been fun as she continued winding her way back to Jack.

Dashing up and down the streets, cobbled and paved, Jack looked in alleys and in great church towers. Once bells even tolled as he stood atop the steeple and surveyed the town. The twelve rings of noon as he hops a new breeze and glided to the castle of Normandy.

It rose from the sea as an awe inspiring wonder. The great walls of stone extended to the sky, tipped with a spike spire that appeared to touch the clouds. The trees that dotted the massive mountain of man made might, were small next to the climbing roofs and wind beaten faces of stone.

Jack scaled the walls, propelled by air and balanced upon the paramount and hugged the sky. All the while,Tempro refused to be found. In the caves of the cliffs, the alleys of Normandy, or any of the nooks and crannies of the Mont Saint-Michel island castle.

North entered Alsace by gliding down and landing somewhere in the acres of vineyards that carved the hills and terraces around it. From here he could see the town of cross timbered houses, with canals dividing the land into many interlocking pieces.

The walk down took him into mid morning and as he came upon the town, the bustle and quaint activity filled his senses.

The smell of wine was everywhere, and people were maneuvering through the bending streets. He passed a World War II memorial in the outskirts of town. Alsace had been occupied by the Nazi party during those dark days. People here passed it without much a of a second glance since they walked past it everyday, but North remembered. Christmas those years had been a nightmare.

Some little boys had asked for peace, other little boys asked for toy guns. Frightful.

The village church had a tower that chimed the hours. As it chimed noon, he continued to meander through the smallest streets, at least the ones he could fit in, and under the bridges that connected one side of a canal to another.

Tempro had not been by the church, the river, the vineyards, or the large hills.

Sunlight filtered gold over the miles of grapevines and bounced over the houses and inns, and breweries.

He was simply not here. North prepared to depart, but not before sneaking away a bottle of impressive vintage in his coat.

Bunny had tunnels all over France, but this was becoming exceedingly boring, as hill after hill, and field after field passed overhead.

He listened intently for some sign of time distortion, which clung to Tempro since he was constantly surrounded by those darn lights. But nothing was showing up.

Sandy was having even less luck in the skies. Clouds milled around him as he sent dream probes down. The probes would attach to every sleeping person and would alert Sandy of Tempro's time fluxes if they were nearby. But so far, all he had been able to do was what he did best: give dreams. They were turning up with nothing and so as the day wore on, both put less and less deep examination into every major they place that they stopped.

Bunny's paws were sore and he had gunpowder in his fur from when he'd had to cut over an old battle field from 1940-something or other. Bunny didn't stop to think about it too much as he just wanted to get it over and done with.

Sunset led them over to Paris with the Eiffel tower gleaming in the last rays of light.

Mimic put Jackie down on the sidewalk in front of the Eiffel Tower, which loomed over them as a construct of cold, welded metal.

"I'll go walk around and check out the clock towers." she told Mim as Mim stood and moved to not get walked through.

"I'll focus on the high vantage points. Anything I see, I'll call you so you can get up close." It seemed that Mim might be the better choice to do the close up work, but she still had a lot of issues with getting passed through.

"You know I don't have the authority to speak with Tempro right?" Jackie clarified before they parted. Mim sighed.

"I honestly don't get that, but if you find him, just call me and I'll handle it. You are perfectly capable to talk to him, although from experience he may not say much back."

Jackie gave a slightly awkward mock salute and then disappeared into the crowds that constantly flowed in Parisian streets. Mim could catch a word here or there, but Tooth was always the superior Guardian in terms of languages, but she had opted to stay behind and hold down the fort at HQ, planning with Claire on how to handle situations of Tempro agreed to help or didn't, and how they were detailing the time travel mayhem.

Moving in on the tower, she debated how best to get to the top. They could take the elevator, but it would be crowded and she did not feel like dealing with that right now. All her methods of flying would be too noticeable except for telekinesis, but she was not confident that she could use it so far from the ground.

Her only option left was to climb by hand. She relished the challenge. The only assistance she decided to use was to magnetize her hands and feet.

She immediately stuck to the structure with a clang!

Peeling her hand off she began to ascend the Eiffel Tower, jumping from beam to beam and sticking sometimes only with one hand. Once she made the mistake of trying to cling to a nonmagnetic surface and she slid down 5 feet before catching the metal edge again.

Jackie wove in and out of side streets. Approaching many towers and church steeples, she investigated each as the sun rose higher in the sky. Nothing showed promise.

People moved and walked in all directions, never stopping, not knowing or caring about their mission. Jackie was actually a little worried about bumping into two of her Branch members, they'd never actually said where in Europe they were going, but she wouldn't be surprised if they were in Paris.

Luck was on her side, she didn't see them.

She passed under the Arc De Triomphe and kept walking. She never stopped in any place for long. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. As she strolled, if it can be said that she was indeed strolling, she kept her ears attuned to the conversations. Most she couldn't understand, but the occasional English word touched her brain. She'd never been good at languages when she was in school, and now she hadn't been in school for years, her already limited language skills had taken a long walk off a short pier.

Mim made it to the top and she took a moment to appreciate the view. She was now the tallest being in the city and she savored the moment that would mayhap never come again.

She could see all the people below. She even spotted Jackie close to Notre Dame Cathedral. Taking a deep breath she pushed off and closed her eyes. Free falling over the side was such a thrill. She loved to do it now that she could fly if she needed to. Spires at the Pole, mountain tops close to Dragon Scale, any of the Towers at Tooth Palace she loved to leap and feel that moment of weightlessness. But now she spread her wings and spiraled to Notre Dame.

"Anything?" she called to Jackie who was on one of the balconies maybe 15 feet beneath her.

"Not even a glance of wibbly wobbly timey wimey." Jackie said, without looking up. She was within eye range but not earshot of other people. So looking and talking to the roof would appear particularly strange.

"I couldn't see a thing from the Eiffel, even though I could see everything." Mim sounded tired.

"What did you do,climb it by hand?" Jackie joked.

"Yeah…" the comment sent the two of them laughing.

"Sunset. We better meet up with the others." Jackie turned to go back down the cathedral stairs and exit, but Mim stopped her.

"Put your arm straight up." she commanded.

"Why-whaaaaaa!" Jackie did as she was told only to be snatched from the balcony by an unseen force. Looking up, she was dangling from a rope of dreamsand, which was pulling her up to Sandy's sailboat. Looking to her right, she could see Mim dangling by a similar which was similarly wrapped around her arm.

"You so saw that coming!" she threw at the Guardian, who was now in a dreamsand form with long Rapunzel hair.

The hair reached over and tapped her shoulder which sent Jackie spinning and gripping the rope with both arms.

"It was coming straight at us! The sunlight must've covered the golden color and made it blend in." Mim shrugged at Jackie who was lifted into the boat. Using her hair Mim pulled herself in. Bunny and Sandy and Jack and Taboo were already there. North glided in on his glider ten minutes after. Mim's hair began to play with Jackie's glasses and hoodie.

"Hey, umm, Mim can you do something about this?" Jackie was batting the long golden hair away to no avail.

"Oh sure." she apologized and her hair braided itself and fell down against her back.

"So you're sure you didn't see nothin'" Bunny asked.

"Yups. Nothing to see, not even a hair of the guy." Jack said, while Taboo nodded from her place in the middle of the deck.

"There is still the rest of the world mind you." Mim kept her spirit up as she leaned on the railing and looked out into the sky, hair streaming into the wind.


	13. Chapter 13

**13-Guten Abend, Mein Freund**

"So where next?" Asked North.

"Shouldn't we take a break?" Asked Jack, looking at Jackie out of the corner of his eye. She was the only mortal in the group, and she needed sleep.

Jackie had noticed and raised her eyebrows. "We can keep going."

"We've been going all day."

"And we can keep going all night."

"Don't you need to sleep?" Asked Mim.

"I can last until tomorrow." Jackie insisted. "So, we may as well stay in Europe since we're here."

"Let's just go with Germany." Said Bunnymund. "It ain't far so we won't have to take an age flyin' there."

"I second that." Said Jackie quickly, not all that keen on going back to the flying death trap. The height wasn't the issue, it was just the insane driving.

"Alright, to the sleigh!" North held his hand over the side of the Sandman's boat as if hailing a taxi. The sleigh, which had flying somewhat aimlessly, suddenly appeared next to the sand boat, slowing down to keep pace.

"Ya know, I'm all for stayin' in here." Said Bunnymund.

"Bah! Will be quicker this way. Sandy doesn't mind, do you Sandy?"

The Sandman shrugged and shook his head, appearing to be fine either way.

The group vaulted into the sleigh, or thrown and carried in the case of Bunnymund and Taboo, respectively.

North lashed at the reins and they were off again, the lights of Paris becoming a blur, and then a memory.

There wasn't all that much distance this time, so North didn't have the time to pull off any stunts, to Jackie's stomach's relief.

"We do same as last time." Called North. "Jackie and Mim look in Berlin, Jack, you take Polish border, I take Rhineland, Bunny and Sandy, exact same as before."

Jackie, gripping the edge of the sleigh, looked over the side. "Would you say we were coming up on Berlin?"

"Pretty close. Why?"

Jackie had no desire of being tossed out again, so despite the howling wind stood up in the sleigh.

"How about I meet you on the ground?" Jackie asked Mim, who raised an eyebrow.

"What are you doing? Don't tell me you can fly and you let me carry you?" Asked Mim.

"No, I can't fly. I can do this though." Jackie moved to the back of the sleigh and stood up on it. Bunny, Sandy and Mim looked in part curiosity, part leaning to catch her if she fell. Jack looked over and grinned, rolling his eyes.

"See you on the ground." Before anyone could stop her, Jackie saluted while grinning, tilted back and let herself fall out of the sleigh.

"Jackie!" Cried Mim as Jack started laughing.

"North!" Yelled Bunnymund, "She just...! What are ya laughin' at ya great ice cube?!" Bunnymund glared at Jack as he was curled up laughing.

"Yo-your faces! She'll be fine!" Jack wiped a tear of laughter from his eye. "Mim will find her on the ground." He added, grinning to her.

"I can confirm that Jackie is okay." Said Taboo, "Although there are times where I wonder whether or not she's a lunatic!"

Meanwhile, hurtling head first through the sky, Jackie was having the time of her life.

"WOOOOOOHOOOOO!" She hollered, the wind streaming behind her glasses and causing tears to run and freeze to her cheeks, but she didn't care. There was just something about falling like this that cleared away the cobwebs.

Earlier hadn't even been close to this, she'd been freefalling with Mim, and while she trusted the Guardian of Balance not to drop her, she didn't like the idea of having her life in someone else's hands. That had taken away a lot of the fun and replaced it with the uncertainty of someone else's actions, which was what she didn't like.

She laughed as she continued to fall, feeling the adrenaline rush and just the joy of it! She could never go this fast otherwise.

All too soon the ground caught up with her, and Jackie didn't feel like turning into a pancake.

With practised ease she flipped herself upright, forming a sheet of ice below her to land on. She landed hard, the metal boots absorbing most of the shock, but it was still a lot and so not to break her legs she bounced back up into the air. This happened a couple of times before the ice finally stilled and Jackie jumped off and onto the ground. She grinned to herself and laughed again, the joyful sound echoing in the trees.

Mim glided overhead not much time later, having left the sleigh once North did his tip over thing. She was looking for a pale blue blob in the twilight, and planned on giving her a piece of her mind for pulling a stunt like that. She found Jackie and landed next her, not looking impressed.

"You are insane. You hate it when someone is with you while freefalling, and you'll do it alone willingly?"

Jackie had the good grace to look sheepish. "Okay, I should have given you guys more of a heads up."

"You nearly gave Bunny a heart attack!"

"Sorry." A pause. "What was his face like?"

Mim blinked. "Okay, I can believe that you're related to Jack." A pause. "It was funny though."

"Bunnymund's face?"

"And Sandy's. You do know they'll probably kill you later, right?"

"I can handle it. Just don't tell the other Heads I did that. I'll get a lecture on maturity."

"I think you need it." Mim relented. "Let's get to Berlin. I'm flying this time."

"Okay." Jackie sighed and held her arms out for Mim to pick her up and carry her to the German capital.

Jack was bored.

A large chunk of the Carpathian mountains stood on the border, and there weren't exactly many towns around.

Taboo on the other hand was loving it. She pretty much forgot what she was supposed to be doing and ran through the fir trees, scaring the odd bear, lynx and wolf pack.

Jack just watched the ice tiger and shook his head before moving on, landing in the nearby village. He walked through it on the electrical wires, his staff across his shoulders as frost spread from his bare feet.

It wasn't much, a few houses, a tarmac road. He got the feeling it was more boring researchers rather than normal people. Tempro was unlikely to be here.

Jack took off again and found Taboo.

"C'mon. Let's move on." He said once he'd finally found her, nosing in a hollowed out tree that had been made into a bear den.

"Two minutes."

"I can't believe I'm being the responsible one here, we've got a job to do, remember?"

"Fine."

Taboo pulled her head out of the hollowed out tree trunk, when a yowl caught her attention.

They looked up to see a perturbed looking lynx looking at the pair of them, or more accurately, at Taboo.

"Ooh, kitty fight."

"No, seriously?!" Jack ice her paws to the ground in order to hold Taboo back from leaping at the lynx. "How does Jackie put up with you?!"

"The answer would probably be 'practice'."

Jack sighed. "Alright, but now is not the time to be violent."

"Why? I wanted to rip that Descendant a new one for getting you and Jackie, but noooo. He's fire guy they said, you'll melt they said."

Jack decided to take a leaf out of Jackie's book. "Taboo." He said sharply.

"Yeah."

"We're going, now."

Taboo blinked her glowing blue eyes in surprise. "...Okay."

Taboo let Jack carry her over the mountains, looking for likely places for Tempro to be.

Sandy flew over the Bodensee Lake, using the same tactics as before to look for time disturbances. It was a little easier this time, as more people were asleep at this time of night.

He stopped off on top of a fish and mermaid fountain in the centre of a town square for moment to have a short rest. This area certainly was pretty, and judging from the amount of restaurants, popular with tourists.

Sandy was quickly off again, he couldn't really afford to hang around.

Bunny was bounding through his Tunnels, although this time he didn't have to worry about gunpowder falling on him, unless he accidentally went into Belgium, which wouldn't be hard to do given the country's relative size to Germany.

However, like France, he felt no time disturbance.

North strode briskly through the streets in the Rhineland, the old cobbled roads, little sideways and surprisingly lively nightlife. He did get walked through a couple of times by some young adults speaking in slurred German.

North rumbled a Russian composer out as a curse and tried to keep to the river side, seeing the mermaid statue pass by in the middle of it. It wasn't quite so bad by the river, there were more normal, sober, people which North didn't pay much attention to, he didn't need to.

Jackie was having a similar problem in Berlin once she and Mim had separated at the Brandenburg Gate. It was something she hadn't accounted for, and it was at times like this that she despaired over her age group.

"Why do people feel the need to do that?" She asked herself as she dodged another group on their way to Lala land.

Jackie shoved her hands deeper into her hoodie pocket, pulled up her hood and tried to stand tall, keeping an eye out for Tempro while trying not to look like an easy target. She'd heard stories, and while she could probably handle it, she'd rather not get into that situation.

However, it was getting pretty packed. It had been busy in Paris, but not this bad, and the amount of people and their body heat was getting a bit much. The armour's ability to keep the wearer's body temperature constant didn't work quite as well when being worn under another layer.

Spotting an overhanging lamp post, Jackie decided that she'd had enough. She ran over to it, gaining enough momentum to jump run the lamp for a couple of steps and using ice to help her get higher up, she grabbed hold of the overhang. From there she took a couple swings to get on top of it it, then jumped onto the nearest building, heading for the rooftops. Her armour, although rattling, didn't impede her at all. The armour was designed to add less than a kilogram to her weight, so didn't impact her movements at all.

The best bit about drunk people, even if they did look up, they'll never remember it the next morning.

Walking around the rooftops Jackie made much faster progress, quickly passing the book burning site, the Holocaust Museum and the entrance to a bunker that had been made in fear of a nuclear war.

Berlin had it's own dark bits of history after all, despite the merriment of the nightlife and that brightly lit KaDeWe. Although the book burning made her shudder, she knew the historical reasons, but, why? Why you would do that to books? They were the best thing in the world.

Besides ice cream of course.

Mim was doing something similar, looking from the highest points in Berlin, which there weren't many of historical significance. Yeah there was the Brandenburg Gate and the tower opposite, both of she had climbed, but it wasn't the Eiffel Tower.

From her various vantage points, she could see another figure on the rooftops in the upcoming dawn, and got excited. She started to fly over, until she realised that it wasn't Tempro, but Jackie still in insane mode.

"Do you have a death wish!?" Cried Mim as she landed next to the Descendant who was looking at the streets, still with her hood up. Jackie didn't initially react, having heard Mim's wing flaps.

"No."

"Then what are you doing up here? You could fall!"

"So could you."

"That's not the point. We're not hundreds of feet up in the air, if you fell you'd have no time to catch yourself."

"Not gonna fall." Said Jackie irritably. "Maybe I'm used to doing this kind of thing."

"How would you be used to this kind of thing?!"

"By doing most nights at home since I was nineteen." Jackie turned to look at Mim, her hands behind her back. "You don't have to worry about me. I'm just as capable as any of you."

"I guess you are." Said Mim slowly. "But I don't think your Order is going to be happy if you come back in pieces."

"Leave that to me. I know what I'm doing."

"If you insist." Mim tilted her head to side as if remembering something.

"How old are you?"

"That's a bit out of nowhere." Jackie commented before answering. "I'm 27 this June."

"Your birthday's in June?"

"Summer Solstice." Jackie sighed. "You can laugh at the irony if want."

"It is odd. My birthday is the day after that." Mim chuckled. " But I was going to say, that you don't always act your age. You're almost thirty and you're jumping off sleighs and climbing on rooftops."

"Don't remind me." Jackie shuddered. "Although, you're the first person to say that. Most people have told me that I act too old for my age."

"So, we can assume you just stayed at roughly the same mental age."

"Pretty much." Said Jackie, smiling.

Mim suddenly looked above Jackie's head and grinned. "Remember Notre Dame?"

Jackie raised her eyebrows, and a second later her arm as they got yanked into the air by strands of Dreamsand.

"I have a feeling this is going to be a reoccurring thing." Said Jackie dryly as Mim changed to her DreamSand form, which made her look a lot like Rapunzel, with a gold dress instead of the Disney movie's purple one. The hair however seemed to have a mind of its own, as it pulled down her hood, poked Jackie in the back, making her spin and gave her ponytail a tug.

"Can you get that stuff under control?" Asked Jackie, trying to keep some of her patience.

"Consider it payback for jumping out of the sleigh." Said Mim with a grin, doing nothing to stop the hair poking and prodding.

Once they got on Sandman's boat Jackie was off, doing her best to avoid Mim's hair while the others said they hadn't found anything, by running all over the boat, but it wasn't exactly big, so there was no escape.

Especially when the tickling started.

Every armour had its gaps, and the hair found it, working it's way into Jackie armpits.

"Hahahaha, s-stop it!" Cried Jackie, laughing as she tried to slap away the hair. Mim didn't respond, and just let the hair do its thing.

"A- a l-little... ahaha, help?" Jackie pleaded to Bunnymund and Sandman, to which Bunnymund folded his arms and replied.

"Nah, I think this is good payback for scarin' us on the sleigh."

Sandy nodded, trying to look stern, but broke into an amused grin.

"T-Taboo?"

"Nope, this is funny."

"J-Jack?"

"I could, but I agree with Taboo."

"Flipping trai- Ah, no! Hahahahaha, stop!"

The hair had tripped up Jackie and was still going mercilessly, as she tried everything to get it stop, rolling, kicking it, even freezing it at one point. Mim quickly unfroze it and the hair just back to work, occasionally pausing to give the Descendant a second to breathe before starting up again.

Eventually the lack of sleep and the fact she was on a boat made of Dreamsand got to the only mortal in the group, and after a few minutes she was asleep, curled up against the wall of the boat.


	14. Chapter 14

**14-Why must Asia by SO BIG!**

Jack joined Mim at the ship's railing, now that she was back as herself and her hair posed no threat to him or anyone else. Putting his hand over hers, they glided through the night, chasing the moon and waiting for the sun to rise.

Asia was a lot to cover, but North had relented and called for a few yetis to explore Russia with time devices. Tooth's fairies had also been busy while the other Guardians had been searching. India was clear, and so was Indonesia and most of East Asia,but China and Japan remained unsearched.

"North this is getting to be too slow. We need to split up." Jack spoke to the Russian who was standing up by the helm's wheel with the very short captain. He joined them on the main deck, red coat waving in the wind.

"Jack's right. we can't keep doing this mate. She can't." Bunny motioned to Jackie, who was leaning against the stairs, breathing softly.

"Don't let her hear you say that." Taboo warned as she lay down on deck, head up and alert.

"Perhaps yes. We will divide conquer then." North pondered as he paced a circle around the golden ship.

"Jack and I will handle China." Mim piped up, her voice muffled as Jack had her wrapped in his arms from behind.

Sandy signed a girl with a snowflake and all eyes fell on their sleeping companion, who was as human as can be, and not used to their ceaseless action.

"Nah, let her sleep, Japan's still a few hours away, and this time you can deal with her lunatic behaviour!" Mim walked over to the opposite railing.

Jack pouted and was about to follow her, but in a flash she pivoted and took a running start. Grabbing the front Jack's hoodie as she passed.

"Lái ba jiékè!" She called as she ran.

She dragged him with her and took a swan dive over the railing and into the clouds, which were tinted the lightest shade of sunrise pink.

He rotated and held her close, talking into her ear he said, "You didn't have to strangle me!"

She laughed and responded, "Too bad, now I have you all to myself!" and kissed him on the cheek. He mocked surprise and released her, the whizzing air tearing her away from him.

They fell together, racing to the ground. Jack had the wind at his back though and fell several meters faster, until she copied a neat little trick and short range teleported ahead. Jack called up the wind and the upflow of air stopped both of them, now spread eagled in the sky.

Mim pointed down to a structure that snaked through the trees below. Jack nodded and set them down on it: The Great Wall of China. Mim shook her head and put up her hair, as the wind had done a number on it during the ride down. Jack snuck up and started pulling lightly at it and brushing it side to side.

"Meow!" he said. Mim guffawed.

"Well then…" she turned her bracelets into a lasso and caught him around the middle, pinning his arms., "I hope kitty likes my string." He wriggled out and took to the air to escape his girlfriend's wrath, however harmless it may've been

The two person team used the wall as a guideline. This early in the morning it was completely empty. Jack kissed Mim before flying out to a point just on the edge of her vision. Keeping parallel to each other, they travelled down the wall. Mim was sprinting inhumanly fast, using her speed, she jumped and flipped off the enormous stone bricks.

The wall had been built to protect China from Mongolia to the north, but now it was just a large stone marker that attracted millions of people a year.

Jack passed over city, suburb and the occasional monastery as he flew overhead. Clipped words and sharp sounds assaulted his ears as he flew over bustling towns and villages. The warm spices in the air made him retreat higher into the sky, despite that they smelled delicious.

The two signaled down to each other often by setting off fireworks, after all fireworks had been invented in China. Jack's were white as he saw nothing and would've been blue if he saw anything of interest. His snowy little explosions made Mim smile.

Jack's fireworks kept on being white though and Mim saw nothing of intrigue. Soon people were moving about the wall and her free running was getting difficult. Too tired from all the flying, she jumped off a tower with her arm up and Jack grasped her wrist.

"We've searched almost half the globe at this point. Where is this guy?" Jack was betting bored, she knew that from his voice. Her arms were wrapped around his neck as she settled on his back.

Laying her head between his shoulder blades, she could feel his heartbeat, "We can assume he's in the other half blizzard."

Dropping her down in the city, Mim cased the Forbidden City in minutes, by speeding through every room corridor and chamber. The city had originally housed the emperors and empresses of China's golden age. The lavish decorations showed ages of rich history, but Tempro was nowhere to be seen. The Ming Vases and Qing tapestries remained untouched and Tempro free.

When Jack came to pick her up he told her that the ancient monks had no Time Keeper in any of their monasteries and that the capital city was so smoggy that the Lights of Time would have stood out immediately. He wasn't in China. Mim let out a roar of frustration.

"Man, this guy is getting to me. I don't get to deal with my fool of a nephew until we find him. Do you know how weird it is for me to say I have a nephew?" Mim ranted.

"And I have a how many greats-something niece! It's going to be okay." Jack put his hands on her shoulders to find that they were very warm. China was on her brain and he suddenly noticed how her outfit had become scaled and her tongue flicked out with tiny rings of smoke.

Jack flew back to the Dreamship in the company of a black and white dragon, grinning he twisted in the air. He had an a strange girlfriend, but he loved her anyway.

While Mim and Jack had been scouring China, the others had eventually made their way to Japan, and decided that Tokyo was as good a place as any to start.

Jackie grumbled as they landed on the outskirts of the city, at around mid morning.

"She gets on at me for jumping out of the sleigh, and she jumps off the ship dragging Jack with her." She grumbled as she led the trio of Guardians into the Technology Capital of the world. They were certainly taking their time, being struck dumb by the advances in technology on earth.

It was admittedly impressive, but being with HOG had made Jackie more used to things even more high tech, even though she was naturally a low tech person. This kinda thing wasn't interesting to her.

Taboo had finally utilised her ability to change size and was sitting in Jackie's hood. Taboo took great delight in the fact that she'd managed to go days without having to change size, and had only just shut up about it.

"Guys." Jackie hissed as the Guardians stopped again to look in a shop window. "This isn't a shopping trip."

Jackie was uneasy, she was five foot eight, so already stood out like a sore thumb, she didn't need to look like she was crazy either. Not to mention, she had to paired with the Guardians that she didn't really know, or know to handle.

The Sandman was of course, silent, and if his Descendants were anything to go by, she did not want to get on his bad side.

North she didn't really know what to make of. He seemed like a large child in many ways, and was a little too enthusiastic for her taste. Not as bad as Toothiana, but enough for Jackie to keep a wary eye on him. He was the unofficial leader of the Guardians though, so Jackie knew he could be serious, but outside of a fight, she had yet to properly see that.

Finally, Bunnymund, close to the oldest and the most worrying, if when they first met was anything to go by. They had interacted a couple of times, but he only ever seemed mildly interested or just irritated, which put Jackie on edge.

So, being partnered with these guys was slowly making her a bundle of nerves.

Bunnymund was the first to respond. "This ain't gonna work. We'll be here for days if we keep gettin' distracted like this."

"What do you suggest then?"

"One of us go around the rest of the country. Everyone else stays here."

"Are you volunteering?" Jackie asked, looking at North, who was currently entranced by a camera with about fifty different features. Sandman wasn't quite as fascinated, but still had a hard time tearing his eyes away.

"These two are pretty comatose."

"As long as ya don't do anythin' stupid." Said Bunnymund pointedly.

"Define stupid." Said Jackie with a cheeky grin.

"Don't jump off anything taller than ya are." Snapped Bunnymund. "I'm not scrapin ya off the ground if ya misjudge it."

"Alright alright." Said Jackie, deciding not to push the Easter Bunny. Jack was one thing, a six foot tall Pooka with more moves than Jackie Chan was quite another.

"Good." Bunnymund nodded, then looked at the still hypnotised North. "And, good luck."

Bunnymund bounded off, and Jackie noticed the white blob on his shoulder.

"Taboo, you sneaky little…" Jackie shook her head. If Taboo wanted to run around the Japanese countryside then so be it.

Noticing that small crowd that was growing as the morning wore on, Jackie made a big show of pulling out her phone and holding it to her ear.

"Sandman, can you grab him please? He probably won't move on his own."

Sandman nodded and wrapped his sand around North, succesfully dragging him from the window.

"Ah, yes, where were we?" North scanned the area. "Where is Bunny?"

"He's gone to look around the rest of the country, since we might be a while with Tokyo." Jackie sighed mentally, they weren't even in the main city yet!

"Ah yes. Let us go!" North strode past Jackie and deeper into the city. Jackie and Sandman looked at each other, shrugged, and followed him.

"Five bucks says he's already been distracted by something." Jackie muttered and Sandman shook his head, raising the bet to ten.

Jackie smirked, why had she ever been wary of this guy? "Done."

North was actually still walking when they caught up with him, so Sandman looked pointedly at Jackie.

"I don't actually have any money on me." Muttered Jackie, which she was regretting now as they passed a cafe, it had been well over a day since she had last eaten. "What are you going to do with ten dollars anyway?"

Sandman folded his arms and tapped his foot, giving Jackie an incredulous look.

"Okay, I'll pay you when we get back to base."

Sandman smiled and nodded, going to catch up with North. Jackie followed, her eyes lingering on the cafe as her stomach started to growl. Why didn't she think to bring some money? Or at least a packed lunch?

"Jackie, you complain when I stare, but now you are!" Called North, and Jackie ran to catch up.

"Sorry." she said sheepishly, although her stomach wasn't feeling apologetic.

North raised an eyebrow as Jackie's stomach rumbled. "Hungry?"

"...Maybe."

"Go find something to eat, Sandy and I will keep looking."

"I'm fine."

"You are not immortal. You need food, you need sleep, is fact. You do not need to worry about slowing us down." North said. "Go, Tokyo will still be here."

Jackie stood stubbornly firm for a few seconds, until her stomach rumbled even louder.

"...Okay. Just try not to get too distracted. It's a technological playground in there."

North chuckled. "I will do my best. Sandy will help if it happens again."

"Okay." Jackie wasn't happy, but she couldn't deny the fact that she needed food. "I'll be as quick as I can."

Jackie took off in one direction while Sandman and North went another, with Jackie hoping she could remember the location of the Tokyo Branch.

Bunny quickly found his hitch hiker, but Taboo had run off before he could say anything. Honestly that tiger gave him the creeps sometimes.

Bunny shook the thought off and took to the Tunnels while Taboo did whatever Taboo wanted to do as he started to cover the country.

Taboo, meanwhile was sprinting through the surrounding countryside, having a bit of fun while she searched. It wasn't often, scratch that, she never got to run around outside like this. Jackie didn't exactly travel much and there were too many people in Burgess for Taboo to run around, and, as much as she loved messing around with Bunnymund, she much preferred running around outdoors rather than running through the Tunnels.

She's have to run back to Tokyo eventually, but for now, she was just happy to get some exercise without someone breathing down her neck.

Jackie found North and Sandman almost two hours later, having found the Tokyo Branch and finding them to be overly nice, once she'd managed to convey to them that she didn't need them to take up arms. She'd nearly been decapitated by an over enthusiastic Descendant wielding a katana. Oh well, now she had enough Bento Boxes in her bag to last her a week!

She unfortunately found the pair in the centre of Tokyo, as she had just run from the more residential area, and North had his face pressed to a window while Sandman just seemed to look at how tall everything was.

Sandman was the first to see Jackie coming and flew over quickly signing that they had looked around a lot of Tokyo, it's just that North had found something of interest again and wouldn't move.

Jackie jogged over and pulled out her phone, so it wouldn't look quite so bad as she started talking at a normal level to supposedly thin air.

"North? North are you in there?"

No response.

"Hoy! Nicolas St North, snap out of it!"

Still nothing.

"Does the phrase 'kid in a candy shop window' ring any bells?"

When he still didn't respond Jackie faced his ear as best she could, since he towered over her, and yelled.

"THE ELVES HAVE THE TAKEN OVER THE WORKSHOP!"

North jumped out of his skin, turning his head every which way until he saw Jackie.

"What? Where?... Ah, Jackie. You've eaten already?"

"Yes, and I don't want to know how long you've been standing there."

"Not long."

"Sure, and I'm the Queen of Sweden."

"You are?" It seemed to take North a second to register the sarcasm. "Oh, right, yes. I knew that."

Sandman shook his head and tapped North's leg, forming an arrow pointing up and the image of a boat.

"I agree, let's leave before something else happens." Said Jackie. "I'll head to the outskirts of the city and meet you in the boat."

"Good plan, see you later."

Sandman took North into the sky as Jackie began walking quickly to where they'd come in, contacting Taboo and telling her to get back to Tokyo.


	15. Chapter 15

**15-Walk this Way**

Jack and Mim arrived on the boat as they circled back past China. Jack dropped Mim who dropped and rolled onto the deck and Jack plopped back on his feet. After exchanging the lack of information found, they settled themselves on going to Africa.

The team split again, with the three icicles, due to their comfort levels, sent to the shady jungles. The other four went to Egypt, where Bunny almost made the mistake of putting a paw in the Nile. Mim snatched the appendage back up.

"Crocodiles Bunny?" she let his paw go and he edged back, looking suspiciously at the water.

Jack flew Jackie and Taboo southward,but they soon had to abandon the air, as the trees became so thick and densely packed that flying would not be option. The African sun seared, even though the hot season had not yet begun. The shade was welcome and both of the winter children sighed in relief.

Jack saw the whole place as new playground. He climbed up the trees, with a little wind assistance and leapt from tree to tree as Jackie panted trying to keep up with her childish ancestor.

"Does he ever stop moving?" Taboo crawled under a leaf and lay down. The minor warmth was making her tired.

"Will you get back down here! We are looking for the tallest waterfall on earth and I'm worried you're going to forget to look before you leap!" Jackie called out, and Jack came back, hood up, but smiling like a fool.

"Fine! But you're being slow and I wanna see stuff." Jack whined. Jackie rolled her eyes. He could be such a kid as he took up again with her chasing his heels and Taboo chasing at hers.

The other group trotted along the Nile before splitting again. Bunny and North, took to the many bazaars and cities of modern Egypt, looking for a sign, of Tempro, which promised to be harder, since the current Time Keeper had the deep richness of Middle Eastern appearance.

Sandy and Mim left for what was left of the Great Ancient Egypt. Heading for Gaza, Sandy flashed a giant triangle over his head. Mim's eyes widened as the scale of the giant pyramids made her crane her neck and blink in the glaring sun.

Looking to her companion,she began to hop up the ascending step, each jump 5 feet or greater in height. By the time she made it to the top, Sandy was already there and he had dressed himself up in a sandy headdress and the canes of Authority and Power. He crossed them over his chest and grinned. No one could say that the Dream Master didn't have a sense of humor. Tempro certainly couldn't, because he was nowhere in sight.

"It's quite the view isn't it?" Mim put a hand above her eyes to shield her vision from the bright light that reflected off the sand. Sandy put on sand sunglasses and nodded.

Back in the jungle, Jackie was getting the creepy crawlies, literally. The bugs here were way too big than physically possible and it didn't help that Jack was poking one with his staff and watching it freeze and that Taboo insisted on trying to chase them. But Jackie froze herself as she saw something very red in the shrubs and leafy green carpet.

"Jack, don't move." she cautioned as she eased over to him. Jack looked up to see a red beaked hornbill jump on a branch. Out of reflex both shot ice blasts. Both hit and melted on the hornbill making it dripping wet. The hornbill didn't seem to be hurt, but it clearly did not appreciate being wet. Turning, it hopped back into the shadows with an upset squawk in its throat. Taboo roared and took chase. Jackie let her go.

With Taboo frolicking through the trees nearby, Jack and Jackie pressed deeper into the humid canopy.

They found the falls, by almost walking over them. Jack caught Jackie's hood a step before the earth abruptly ended in a real cliffhanger. The rushing water sprayed them which did wonders for cooling them down. Freezing the water on their skin, the pair went down the bottom to look around, Jack by flying, Jackie by skating.

"Do you ever get annoyed with Mim's, um...mood swings?" Jackie asked genially. The question had been bugging her ever since she had heard about the fiasco at HQ.

"No. It keeps me on my toes, and technically it's the mood swings over everyone else that cause them." Jack didn't seem offended by the question. Jackie was left to ponder that as the jungle swallowed them once more.

The noise of people in the marketplace, couple with street musicians playing their unique sounding instruments, blocked any conversation between Bunny and North, but as Bunny watched mesmerized as a man charmed a cobra snake, North scanned the sea of faces for Tempro. It seemed unlikely that he would be here. But Egypt was an important historical place so they could not ignore it.

As as the cookie crumbled, Tempro was not in the Valley of Kings, although Sandy had to pull Mim away from examining one of the tombs, she was such an knowledge nerd. He was not by the Sphinx either of any of the palace ruins. As the two cruised back down the Nile, the only River on earth that flowed South to North, on Sandy's boat, Mim was fiddling happily with a stone tablet Sandy had allowed her to take from one of the tombs.

Jackie was sweating as she landing on Sandy's boat, or technically an Abydos, Jack was tempted to jump in the river, but Mim forbid it as she knew he was not going to be able to swim in these currents, and as aforementioned...crocodiles.

Instead she morphed herself into water form and doused each of them with the water she pulled up. Shaking his head, sending droplets everywhere, Jack gave her a hug.

"Back up, you're wet!" Mim cringed as playfully shoved him away. So he hugged Jackie instead, who had automatically frozen the water in sheets of ice, although it was already melting, but it was still kind of awkward. Taboo, who had gone back in Jackie's pocket, licked them all with her rough icy tongue which sent everyone laughing.

North and Bunny waved them down on the shore. This was getting arduous. The Abydos lifted up from the water and went to the clouds. There was only South America left and maybe a few islands. This time everyone fell asleep on the ride, except for Sandy. Irony huh?

Jackie managed to eat one of her Bento Boxes before she and Jack disappeared again, this time to Patagonia.

Since the two were naturally happier in the colder climates, it made sense for them to head to furthest point from the Equator that they could.

Jackie wasn't exactly happy with the choice. She'd have much preferred to go somewhere interesting, like Machu Picchu and the Nazca Lines, but her heat tolerance simply wasn't high enough to handle it.

There wasn't exactly much to see in Patagonia, nor anyone around, so Jackie was able to take to the skies with an ice bridge while Jack flew.

They soared over the enormous plateau, stopping for a few seconds in midair just to take in how big it was.

Jackie whistled as she glided to a halt the, literal, ice skates sending up curls off ice. "I don't think I've seen anything this big. Not from this high."

"You should do the aerial tour of Antarctica sometime. All expenses paid."

"Is that an offer or a joke?" Jackie looked at Jack, who was hovering next to her. "I honestly can't tell."

"And here I was thinking you'd actually gained a sense of humour." Jack shook his head. "Turns out it's just a weird one."

"Gee, thanks." Jackie folded her arms, the light metal beneath her clothes clanking slightly.

"Well, as lovely as that sounds, Antarctica is even more empty than here."

"In that case." Jack leaned back in the air like he was reclining on a bed. "Tempro will stand out like a sore thumb then."

"He had better be here." Grumbled Taboo from Jackie's pocket. "We've searched practically everywhere else."

"We can only hope." Said Jackie with a shrug before the two ice wielders set off again. This time they decided to split up to cover the area quicker. Jack went west, and Jackie went east.

North had delegated himself the countries of Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname, and quickly realised he had bitten off more than he could chew.

He managed to call the Yeti's who had finished with Russia to cover the areas he couldn't, and he took off to explore what he could. Maybe he could sneak off a few other vintages while he was here. Wine from this part of the world was very different from Europe.

Bunny had decided to take the West coast, since it was close to his home of Easter Island. One major stop however, was Machu Picchu.

The old city had a lot of history, so if Tempro was going to be anywhere, it was here.

Or so Bunny thought. The ancient stone walls looked like they could tell a hundred stories if given the chance, and if the tourists would stop and listen.

Some of the native kids ran around and Bunny didn't really know what to think as they ran by. He was no expert on human politics or things of that sort, but he knew that these kids should be doing something with their lives instead of hoping to grab something off tourists.

Bunny had to shake off the guilt, there wasn't anything he could do about it. These kids didn't even know he existed.

After deciding that Tempro wasn't here Bunny took off to face the rest of the west coast. No matter how uneasy his conscience felt.

Sandy and Mim were covering the largest country on the continent, Brazil.

First up was Rio De Janeiro, which didn't really take all that long to look through, all things considering.

Sandy found himself perched on top of the statue of Christ the Redeemer as Mim flew through the streets. He could see her passing places like the sports stadiums for the World Cup and the Olympics.

He scanned the area from his vantage point, trying to spot or sense the time disturbance that naturally followed Tempro, but as was the story in everywhere they'd searched. No luck.

Mim met him by the statue, where he was currently impersonating the figure behind them.

Mim giggled as she looked at them, other than the fact there were both in robes, there was no similarity between the two.

Sandy recovered his dignity and they set out to cover the rest of the country.

Bunny's next stop was also in Peru, the Nazca Lines.

He couldn't see them properly from his vantage point on the ground, but he knew what they looked like.

He didn't dare get too close though, staying at roughly tourist distance as he scanned for Tempro. The ground around here was incredibly delicate, anyone stepping on it would leave a path that lasted for ever. Even Bunny, being intangible to most people, would leave a mark.

In the end, no sign of who was looking for, and he continued on his way.

Mim and Sandy now had the jungle to deal with, and while Sandy floated above the Amazon river, Mim attempted to fly through the trees.

The keyword, attempted.

The trees here grew closer together than any forest back home, so had to go relatively slowly so not to crash into them.

Not to mention those trees were inhabited, it was so noisy!

Toucan's and other brightly coloured birds screeched, monkey's howled and hooted like owls and the trees crashed together as animals moved among them.

After hearing what happened to Jack and Jackie, Mim was more than happy to stay away from any oddly swaying branch, just case of an unruly bird. It was also good for avoiding snakes.

Snakes were definitely something to be avoided around here, since the rainforest here was home to one of the most well known snakes; the giant anaconda.

Sandy had actually spotted one, as he glided over the winding river on a paraglider. It had just decided to have a capybara for dinner.

Sandy winced as the giant guinea pig was attacked, but quickly moved on. Circle of Life and all that.

Night was starting to fall as the group met back at Sandman's Abydos, and each one hoped the others had gotten something.

"Nothing?!" Cried Mim. "We've searched the entire globe and found nothing."

"Globe is big." Defended North.

"We might have missed a couple of countries." Said Jackie, thinking. "We haven't checked North America, and have we gone to Northern Europe yet?"

"Ain't done Australia either." Added Bunnymund. "Still plenty of places ta look."

"Yeah, but Tempro's probably also moving." Added Taboo, now full size and out of Jackie's pocket. "He could be behind or ahead of us."

"Let's just take a break for now." Said Jack, noticing that Jackie was doing her best to stifle a yawn.

The group agreed, and decided not to say anything when Jackie fell asleep on deck.


	16. Chapter 16

**16-Like Clockwork, it Ticks**

It was the final straight in their race around the world. They sent Bunny to Australia and Sandy to North America. The children there were long past due for their dreams and so the two disappeared into the night once more.

They had chased down the moon and so their quest kept them cloaked in silks of night under stars that Jack had spent way too long looking at.

They had returned to the sleigh and North was piloting them towards England. He only intended to deliver them there since he himself had been tasked with searching the many islands that dotted the earth's blue face.

Jackie had awoken, but Mim had drifted off into a slumber so fragile that no one spoke for fear of waking her.

Jack had her head in his lap and he fingered her hair in his fingers. He liked to do this with the white streak so that he couldn't see the frost that crawled from his finger. She rolled onto her side and her breathing quickened.

"Are we there yet?" she yawned and Jack sat her up.

"Almost. You were out for most of the ride." Jackie smirked at the smaller girl. The two had come to mutually respect the other, despite their differences in attitude. Jackie with her way of unintentionally being more mature, and Mim swinging between her extreme natures.

Mim hummed in satisfaction at having rested.

"You guys can now have some girl time!" Jack said charmingly as he switched places with Mim, put up his hood and was out like a light. Only fifteen minutes later did North look back at them and nod. Jackie whispered something in Mim's ear and she smiled devilishly.

Jack awoke to the open sky and its sea of twinkling lights with scattered wisps of cloud.

It's not as peaceful and poetic as it sounds. He was flailing in the air, groping for a staff that was not in his hand. He turned over and over on the fall!

He felt something brush against his cheek. Was it the wind? He had never been able to connect with the wind without his staff but in desperation he reached out for the nip that he had felt and he snagged a fabric as well as flesh. He held onto it and his plummet was ended as he was jerked to a stop.

Mim had kissed him on the cheek while invisible and he was very upset that she wasn't holding his staff. He had clamped onto her wrist and she laughed as she he glanced down into the space beneath his shoeless feet.

"Your beloved staff is with Jackie, over the Thames River my little blizzard." she announced proudly after explaining how they had tossed him over the side of the sleigh after prying the staff from his cold, not dead, grip. Jack had chuckled in a manner that was so not Jack.

"What? Not looking for sky time with your girlfriend?" she was eating up how freaked out he was. He depended way too much on that thing.

"I love you snowflake, but um, the group awaits." He pulled himself up and kissed the back of her hand like the princes do in the movies. She pulled him into a nosedive, and they held hands the whole way down.

"Took you long enough!" Jackie leaned on the staff as if it she had been born to it. Not too much of stretch really.

"My loving fool, here, was not enjoying the environment." Mim needled her boyfriend next Jackie, who was standing by the railing of London Bridge. At this time of night there were still cars and the odd pedestrians.

"Shame, my good man!" Jackie joined in the fun and Jack's face was turning positively scarlet, surprising on such a pale face. But blood is still red and all of his flushed into his face.

"_I don't blame him."_ Muttered Taboo from Jackie's pocket, as her hood was up. The ice tiger had spent the entire sleigh ride as close to the sleigh floor as possible.

The trio took to the streets in a flurry of action. Jack and Jackie slid along with grace, freezing the streets, already slick with the famed London rain. Mim once more ran across rooftops and climbed spires and towers. Buckingham Palace had offered a wonderful view, but she didn't linger as the guards and silent courtyard became boredom personified. It wasn't as if she could walk up to the guards out front and try and get them to react.

The bridges, towers, and London eye offered her great vantage points but as she gazed down upon the ground, it was still busy, traffic was still moving along at a snail's pace and people were still walking around, mainly gathering around the various pubs and bars. The nightlife buzzed and for a moment she mourned missing out on these aspects of life.

But that moment passed and she streaked across the sky to her final climb, homing in with her teammates below.

Jackie slid down the straight roadways as well as those that were winding around and around the city, she tried to make it look like she was skating or skateboarding as she slid past. Her ice still glistened under the moonlight as she forgot to melt some bits, so several late night persons still managed to trip as she sped past, keeping to the shadows of the buildings.

She saw lovers wandering the sidewalks and men laughing in the windows of buildings she glimpsed in passing.

"We may want to come back here sometime," she said, "you know, when a crazy rogue isn't out for blood and all that."

"_With our luck, it'll never happen."_ Said Taboo.

"Since when were you the pessimist? There's a London Branch isn't there? We can take a Tunnel."

"_How about more sliding, less planning holidays." _Taboo just wanted to get on with this, still not in a good mood after the sleigh. "_I still haven't smelt Tempro."_

"And you say I'm the spoilsport." Jackie shook her head, but kept going.

Jack was seeing similar things as he bounced around the buildings, leaving frost wherever he had trod. People, lights and sounds of cars, words and rain somewhere in the distance. He had been here to deliver snow lots of times. He loved London, but being here on business kind of limited his sightseeing capacity. He hadn't had a chance to explore the Olympic stadium from a few years ago. Work had just been piling up!

The three of them all worked though the city, combing the streets, skies and everything in between. The search culminated at the clock of all clocks, about to ring midnight into the night air.

Big Ben.

Big Ben was actually the bell in the clock tower, but even so, they all ascending to the clock's mighty face, getting a good look at the yellow stone building next to it where Parliament met. Jack was carrying Jackie up the height of the tower after a lot of protesting on Jackie's part, who was worried someone might see. Mim perched in the near vertical hands and put her hands to the clouded glass of the clock face. Squinting at the distorted interior her blood begin to race through her veins, heart pumping.

"I see lights inside! Three of them and a shadow!"

Jack held onto Jackie as Mim got them in by exploiting a small section of the clock face that was under repair and pulled a few feet from the wall. Lifting the plastic cover that served as the protection from the elements and the weather, they all ventured inside.

It a took quite a bit of work as they held close to the wall and slid shoulder to shoulder into the massive chamber of gears, tumblers and rotating parts that ran the large timekeep. Their backs were now to the intricately arranged glass that separated them from the night air. But despite their precarious position, they saw the man with the Lantern, the Keeper of the three Lights: Ancaerdem, Hiere, and Kommen.

Tempro.

He was on the far side of the tower sitting lotus as if he was meditating. His eyes were closed and the three Lights rocketed around him and kept close. Jackie spotted the pale pink of Ancaerdem along with the pastel green of Hiere and the lilac of Kommen.

He was of Middle Eastern blood with his sunkissed complexion. But the only complexion one could see was his face. The rest of him was covered in robes of every deep color.

His pants were the style one might expect to see on an Arabian. Long, but poofed at the bottom. They were a blue not unsimilar to the blue found in jeans but the material was far different. The red belt connected the pants to a forest green shirt.

But all of this was covered by a cloak that was as a deep a navy as the sky above them. At the ends it seemed almost immaterial, simply fading into mist. The hooded cape had the face of a large owl, whose wise eyes hid Tempro's own.

"How by moon are we getting over there?" Mim looked at all the gears, twisting and turning and clicking together.

"_Fly? Perhaps?"_ Taboo threw out there with her telepathic voice.

"No wings I can create will fit through. There are no gaps big enough." Mim gestured to the mechanism at large.

"Not enough air power in here to get me through fast enough." Jack doubled her statement, "We could ice it and get through."

"And stop the clock?! Not a good idea." Jackie did not want to hear it from the London Branch when they damaged one of the national symbols, leaving them with the mess.

"We'll just have to go through the old fashioned way!" Mim crouched and pushed off from the ground, landing in another crouch in the niche in the closest gear. Jack and Jackie followed suit and Taboo shrunk back into Jackie's pocket, gripping with her miniscule claws.

Mim grabbed Jackie's hand, ignoring Jackie's jump of surprise and pulled her up into the gear. Jack had landed one nook below them and he looked up as the gear moved slowly in a rotation.

"Look out!" Jack suddenly yelled from below in the giant metal ticking machine. Mim spun to see them one click away from a junction with another gear! Jackie gasped as that click passed and they leapt onto the top of the new gear, away from the crushing jaws.

Jack jumped up as well as his niche approached the crushing intersection.

"Well, that was worthy of a heart attack!" Jackie sat on the gear that never ceased to move under them. Rolling off the side, they dropped to the nook in a lower gear, this gear spun faster and they found themselves jumping from nook to nook as they looked for a new point to push to.

"Up there!" Mim sprung in the blink of an eye to a section of staircase in the tower. She had the handrail but slipped on the angled surface, which brought her hand crashing down onto the stair itself.

"Agh!" she bit out as her wrist strained to hold her as she got her other hand up. Jack jumped up after and also caught the stairs. Jackie followed up, pressing into the air with all her strength. She didn't notice anything until she felt her hand grip wood. Man, now she was feeling the weight of her helmet in her backpack, damn the multiple visors!

Jack had reached the highest step and Mim a few steps down with Jackie in between them.

"Mim! crawl up." Jack called down over the din of the gears.

"Trying!" she responded, biting her lip as she got her body weight over her arms. Once all of them were on the stairs, Jackie thought to check for Taboo. Inside the soft, worn fabric of her pocket she felt worn ribbon and tarnished metal, but not a trace of a ice.

"Taboo! She's gone!" Jackie ran to the handrail and leaned dangerously far over. Amongst the whirring and motion, she looked for any sign of the tiger.

"There!" Jack pointed his staff to a spinning metal cylinder attached to their last gear. The tiger was back to her normal size, struggling for purchase as the cylinder spun inwards to her, trying to force her to fall.

Mim dove over the side without thinking, swinging off another cylinder pipe she landed on the spinning part, shifting between her feet to remain balanced on top. Using her bracelets she morphed a rope and managed to get around Taboo's chest behind her forepaws.

"Let go." Mim commanded and they continued to slip on the pipe.

"_Are you crazy!" _Taboo screeched. She hated heights and she ordered herself not to look down, but disobeyed. It was a loooooong way down.

"Just do it!" Mim said, eyes flashing orange in anxiousness. The tiger gulped inside and released her claws from the metal. There was the initial gut-wrenching weightlessness before she was caught by the rope which Mim had now wrapped around her forearm.

Jack jumped down and tried to slow the gear which made the cylinder turn. As long as it turned they would never be able to get both of them back up. He armed himself in ice and wedged himself between two gears They were crushing him but he saw Mim pull the tiger onto the cylinder. Jack and his ice had halted the clock just seconds before the bells. The combined strength was enough to jump back to Jackie, who augmented the lift with some cryokinesis. She wrapped her arms around Taboo who just plopped on her stomach and flumped.

"Don't ever do that to me again." Jackie muttered, only loud enough for Taboo to hear.

"_Don't… intend to."_ Taboo panted in response.

_DONG!_

"Well this is turning out to be an adventure." Jack was breathing heavily from the adrenaline. Mim was hugging him as he massaged the arm that had held most of the clock's force.

"Just a little farther and we have him though." Mim perked up as she saw the funny, old man just meters away over a gap quite large and a little ways down. Jackie looked around for a better way than just jumping on faith and her eyes wandered up.

"If we want to go down, we'll just have to go up." She directed them to the beams that cris-crossed the upper level in the clock tower.

_DONG!_

They walked on the thin beams of wood in single file. It was like a tightrope with Mim in front, Jack in the middle and Jackie following just behind.

_DONG!_

Jack formed a short slide to another gear, so close to Tempro. They hit the gear running and began to build momentum.

_DONG!_

The edge was rushing closer and they moved diagonally to keep up with the spinning gear. 10 feet, 5 feet, 2 feet, 1 foot, just inches to go until the jump.

_DONG!_

They all pushed off and prayed.

_DONG!_

They were up in the air. All time seemed to slow as their descent never felt like it was going to end. Were they flying or did Tempro stop them in time, keeping them suspended?

_DONG!_

They weren't flying. Indeed, the ledge was coming up to meet them, just very, very slowly.

_He will help me find Colin! _Mim felt as she fell.

_He'll help end this chaos! _Jackie soared in her mind.

_He will stop this idiot's fire! _Jack could see the fire in his head.

"_He means ground!" _Taboo shut her eyes!

_DONG!_

The wooden ledge hit their feet and their backs as they rolled and stood to face the man, who had not moved despite all the commotion and yelling. His lights now forming a pastel light show in the wrought iron lantern beside him.

All of them standing there, staring at him.

_DONG!_

"We need your help Time Keeper!" Jack announced brash from exhaustion and frustration of the globe wide search.

"S-someone has taken Ancaerdem, from the future, we need to send him back. You know the most when it comes to this." Jackie said hesitantly in the presence in such a revered spirit, coming out of an awkward half bow as she did so, the movement feeling odd to her. Only now did she remember the scrunched up cloak at the bottom of her bag that she was supposed to wear. No chance of her wearing it now, not if they have to get out the way that they came in.

"This I saw, this I know." Tempro said, without shouting, yet his voice carried.

"So will you help us?" Mim knelt to face level and looked at him. His eyes open, shedding a soft yellow glow as his eyes saw both all the past, all the present, and some ways into the future.

"I am Tempro, I keep my place, only keep the peace, of time not space." he rhymed out.

_DONG!_

"Please, just tell us how to defeat him, or how to send him back!" Jack was desperately trying to keep his temper. Sure, Jack is playful, but this guy was being elusive and annoying.

"Will you do anything for us?" Jackie asked, trying to remain polite.

"I love to watch but not to act, for is our sacred pact, so what this man had tampered so, others have done too you know." he grinned happily and rocked from side to side.

_DONG!_

"You have to do something Tempro! This man is from the future, you keep time in order and he is messing around with his family from the past." Mim was trying to work out his cryptic riddles.

"Yes, I see for I see all, I know you have a plan, that's all. You need me not, at least not yet, and know that I shall not forget!" He vanished in a flash of light. Well almost. Kommen floated just inches from Mim's face, just sitting there.

"What a weirdo." Jack circled the light, curious.

"The timestream in your head will do that." Mim said.

"Can we go home now?" Jackie asked, breaking the spell.

_DONG!_


	17. Chapter 17

17-Time to Travel

"That's it?" Growled Taboo from Jackie's pocket as they all finally got back to the streets, standing in the shadow of the Houses of Parliament. "We travel across the world, risk our necks up there, and he tells us that he won't help us and leaves us a freaking light bulb!"

"It's not all bad." Said Mim, watching the lilac light float in the air nearby. It had followed them down from the clock tower. "We can still send Sandy into the future."

"This is all part of bigger mission, remember Taboo?" Asked Jackie as she rummaged in her pockets, she was so sure she had it.

"What are you looking for?" Jack asked.

Jackie's face split into a grin as she found it and pulled it out. "This!" She declared, holding it out for the two Guardians to see.

Mim peered closer at the device. "What is it, exactly?" She'd seen it before, back at the lake, but she hadn't seen it being used.

"It's a SPARK, and no, it doesn't stand for anything, we just couldn't think of anything else." Jackie shrugged. "It's a communication device that HOG uses, but North has one. So we can call him, tell him we found Tempro and we can all meet back at the base."

"Sounds good." Said Mim. "You going to call him now?"

"No, not here. We're too in the open. Let's go somewhere else."

The trio jumped over the concrete barriers separating the path from the House of Parliament and walked further away from the landmarks of London.

They eventually found somewhere out of the way, and ducked into a gap between two buildings for Jackie to make the call.

She pressed one of the buttons, which caused the camera in the back to whir into life. The blue light appeared, but since Jackie wasn't using voice command, the light showed various contacts in the form of a hologram.

It was limited to the other Heads, a handful of Branches, and North.

"I thought you said HOG used this." Asked Mim, "Why so few contacts?"

"It's new. What I've got is a prototype, the original was only a distress signal." Jackie selected North and the device started to call him.

He picked up quickly and you could see the top half of him and some of the sleigh as a hologram in the blue light.

"Ah! Jackie! Good news?"

"You bet North!" Jack leaned into the call. "We found him!"

"Good! So what is plan now?"

"He didn't agree to help now, but he will help later." Said Jackie.

"But he has given us Kommen." Said Mim and Jackie nodded.

"Yeah we've got Kom, Kommen? What she said."

"C'mon Jackie, it's easiest one."

"I'll learn them another time." Jackie muttered to Taboo. "Anyway, we're heading back to base, there should be a Tunnel in London, so we'll take that." She said to North.

"Okay, I will go find Bunny and Sandy. Meet you down there!" With that North disappeared and Jackie hung up, letting the camera go back into the disc.

"So, where's the Tunnel?" Asked Jack.

"Just outside Hyde Park." Said Jackie, looking up on the SPARK's map where that was in relation to them. "This way."

About an hour or so later the trio got to the Departure Cavern. About half way up.

"Well, this is going to be a long walk." Taboo started walking along the spiralling path down as Jack jumped, floating down and Mim grew a pair of wings.

"Who said anything about walking?" Asked Jackie. She stepped out into thin air and was caught by a pillar of ice that she rose from the bottom.

"...That works too."

Taboo stepped onto the pillar and Jackie lowered them to the bottom in time to meet Jack and Mim as they landed.

"That's just cheating!" Complained Jack and Jackie shot him a smirk.

"Says who?"

They walked into the Main Cavern and saw that Samson and Toothiana were waiting for them. North had apparently called ahead.

"You're back!" Cried Toothiana and she flew over to the group, giving Mim and Jack a hug, then moving to give Jackie one.

"Uh, no thanks." Jackie took a step back.

"Not a huggy person?" Asked Mim, "You could never live with Tooth!"

"Funny. And, no, not really." Said Jackie, her body temperature made it difficult for her to tolerate normal human contact, and Toothiana, being part bird, had a higher body temperature than most.

"Well, good to see you back." Toothiana smiled and Jackie sent one back, a little uneasily. She didn't know why, but she could never quite relax around Toothiana.

"The other Guardians are on their way. I see that Tempro allowed you to use Kommen" Said Samson, having wheeled over, and Jack's eyes widened.

"What happened? You weren't in one of those last time!"

Mim gave him a look and a shove as Samson chuckled.

"Too many lightning strikes in Melbourne." He explained. "It is not a big deal."

"Where's Claire?" Asked Jackie.

"She had to go back to Cape Town, something came up at work." Samson wheeled himself backwards and started to turn around. "Oh, and Jackie, you need to be a little more careful. The Berlin Branch noticed you rooftop hopping. Very unprofessional."

Jackie's face went a little pink as Taboo and Jack sniggered and Mim shot her a 'I told you so' look.

Samson was also chuckling. "Ah, but that's just you. You need to let off steam in a stressful situation. Usually by doing something stupid."

"I knew what I was doing!" Protested Jackie and Samson broke out into laughter.

"I jest Jackie. You are not stupid enough to do something like that if you didn't know what you were doing."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

"Take it how you wish. Ah, the other Guardians have returned."

The group turned around to see Bunnymund, North and Sandman walking out of the Departure Cavern.

"I can't believe him!" Cried Bunnymund. "We scour the globe looking for 'im, and he doesn't want ta help?!"

"Tempro will help when he needs to Bunny." Reminded North.

"We have Kommen." Said Samson, loud enough for everyone to hear, not looking at all fazed as everyone's gaze fell on him.

Sandy smiled and gave a thumbs up as Samson nodded.

"So, is there anything we need to do?" Asked Jackie.

" just needs to touch Kommen." Said Samson. "Mr. Bunnymund?"

The two Guardians looked uncomfortable being referred to like that. "Ya know, ya don't need to call us that." Said Bunnymund.

"As you wish, I'm not as much as a stickler for protocol."

Bunnymund folded his arms. "I don't need ta do anything, I'm all ready."

"In that case, I suggest everyone takes a step back."

In unison, everyone except Bunnymund and Sandman took a step back, leaving the two oldest Guardians and lilac light of Kommen in the middle of the group.

"I'll go first." Said Bunnymund to Sandman. "See ya there."

There was a soft pop, and then he was gone. The transition had been seamless, one second he was there, the next he wasn't.

Sandman floated up to reach Kommen, and once he touched it his body seemed to disappear into a lilac silhouette, then he and the light disappeared.

There was silence in the Main Cavern.

"Well, that is that plan in motion." Said Samson, wheeling himself back.

"Any word from Tracey yet?" asked Jackie.

Samson shook his head. "None yet. Not all of the pack can shadow travel, and they cannot fly. Many have not even been in towns and cities before. Give them time."

"So, any idea how long Bunny and Sandy will be?" Asked Jack.

"As long it takes I imagine. I'd ask Alexander more on the subject, but his schedule is not as flexible as the rest of us." Samson shrugged. "All we can do now is wait."

"In that case." Said Jackie, adjusting her backpack. "I'm going to dump the armour and go home."

"Seriously?" asked Jack.

"Hey, I don't have the advantage of living solely in one world. I live in two, and I've been neglecting my other life." Jackie said, walking backwards as she made her way to the Sleeping Quarters. "Plus, Tina, Sally and Nigel will be back by now, they're going to want to know where I've been."

"Not to mention sparring with your boooyfriend." Teased Taboo and Jackie stopped in her tracks, her face flushing red.

"Aww, you're embarrassed."

"S-shut up." Said Jackie, looking as stiff as wooden board while her face was as red as a fire engine.

Jack grinned and flew over, hovering over and looking at the side of her head. "Yep, there's steam coming out of her ears."

"Jack!" Jackie cried as he flew back and landed, laughing.

"Sorry Icicle, it was too good to resist."

"And now it's our turn. Taboo spilled on your joke earlier about Jack and me!" Mim was enjoying this way too much.

Jackie glared at Taboo before shaking her head, relaxing slightly as she pushed back the curtain that led to the Sleeping Quarters.

Why did you tell them that? Asked Jackie, and Taboo snickered.

"It was funny. Do I need another reason?"

"See you later." Jackie said out loud to try and get out of the situation, and disappeared deeper into the base as the group in the Main Cavern continued talking.

"Have fun!" Called Mim, and Jackie went so red that any ice that may have formed on her face would have melted instantly.

Jackie sighed to herself, running her hand under her glasses. It had been an exhausting five or so days, and she was ready to crash. She had no idea what time it was in Burgess, although given that it was night in London, she was willing to guess late afternoon or early evening.

Good grief her body clock could get out of whack doing this job.

She walked past the blue curtain on the left that led to the Descendant of Jack Frost Sleeping Quarters and the black and white one that led to the Descendants of Mimic Sleeping Quarters. The two were on the top floor because they were the two smallest Descendant groups in HOG, so didn't need so much space, yet.

There were also stairs nearby that led to the lower levels of the Sleeping Quarters. The floor below was Descendants of North and Toothiana, then the floor below was Descendants of Bunnymund and Sandman. They had the most space because they were the largest Descendant groups, roughly 200 in each group, compared Toothiana and North's 100, and Jack Frost's less than twenty.

Right at the back of the top floor was were Jackie was going. There seven doors, each different colours with different symbols carved into them. From left to right they went:

Green with a ring patterned egg. Purple with a canine tooth. Yellow with a five pointed star. Red with a sword. Blue with an eight sided snowflake. Grey with a fir tree and finally, black and white with the most complicated symbol yet.

A set of weighing scales with a dragon coiled around the centre, it's head coming over the top and breathing fire

Each door belonged to a Head, with the exception of the grey and black and white doors. The grey one was for Tracey to use whenever she needed to, and the Descendants of Mimic didn't have a Head, so that room was unoccupied.

Jackie pushed open the blue door to reveal a very basic setup. A bed shoved against the left wall, a desk and wardrobe opposite and a chest at the foot of the bed for other belongings. It wasn't personalised, Jackie barely spent any time in here, but it did have a couple of things. Some paperwork that needed to go to the Records Room sat on the desk, along with a spare pair of glasses in case her current ones broke. In the wardrobe hung a few spare clothes for the same purpose, with a spell on it so that any clothes placed in it became clean and had no creases.

Jack put her bag on the bed as Taboo sat down by the desk. She pulled out the three leftover Bento Boxes and put them to one side, she could take those home.

She took out the helmet and gloves and placed them on the bed before taking out her ice blue cloak.

It was her robes of office if you will. When meeting with immortals and Descendant groups officially, she was supposed to wear this. It wasn't exactly the most practical thing in the world, but Jackie intended to not mention to Jason that she hadn't worn it when they found Tempro.

It was quite pretty really. Pale blue on the outside with a slightly darker blue lining, silver snowflakes lining the edges, a silver HOG logo on the back; a boar against a crescent moon. Finally the clasp was a silver eight sided snowflake.

She hung up the cloak, and after a second pulled out an item from her hoodie pocket.

It was an old medal, in the style of a war medal, since that technically was what it was. The blue and white ribbon was fraying and worn, while the metal boar against a snowflake was tarnished. It had once been a silver colour, but now it was darker in places from being thumbed so many times.

The medal had a bit of sentimental value. She had to wear it with her cloak usually, but she carried it around a lot anyway. It was a symbol of what HOG meant to her, just in case she ever forgot.

"Now you're getting sentimental?" Asked Taboo.

Jackie shrugged and pocketed the medal, then got to work getting the rest of her armour off.

Oddly, there was a knock on the door.

"Just a minute!" Called Jackie, pulling her jeans back on and deciding not to bother with the hoodie. The room was kept at her preferred temperature.

"Okay!" She called, going over to open the door.

Outside was a man about college age, and looked a lot like Nym, only older, male and with glasses. He looked to be a little older than Jackie, and was taller.

"You're back." Said Calvin.

"And, you're still here." Said Jackie, not entirely sure how to react. Last time she saw him he'd pretty much insulted two Guardians, including her ancestor. Fair enough, he'd had a rough day, but there was no need for that kind of behaviour.

"What do you need?" Asked Jackie, deciding to go with relaxed by leaning against the door frame, also revealing that fact that Taboo was nearby.

"I just want to know what's going on. I've been here four days already!"

Jackie quickly slipped into Head mode, knowing that the situation had barely changed since she'd left to go globe trotting.

"And you'll stay here until things are sorted out."

"I'm in college! What about my lectures?!"

"We've given your college the excuse of 'family issues." Said Jackie, remembering what Claire said she was going to do last meeting. "As for normal work, I assume Claire has sent you your laptop and textbooks?"

"Yeah, but-"

"Then there's nothing to worry about, is there?"

Calvin sighed. "What about my parents? Anything on them?"

"We're still looking." Seeing the change in Calvin's body stance Jackie's face and voice softened.

"We will find them."

"Can you promise that?"

Jackie paused. She didn't like promises, they could be too easily broken.

"I don't like promising anything." She said, "But I am certain that we will find them."

Calvin folded his arms and looked away. "How? The globe's huge."

"There's more of us than you think. We've got our best people looking."

There was a pause, then.

"...I'm just worried."

"I know, I'd be as well."

"How would you know anything about this?" There was bitterness in his voice, and the same anger she'd heard when she first met him.

"I know a lot about this. You're not the only one to have lost people."

Calvin seemed to catch on what Jackie was on about and looked at her. "Who did you lose?"

Jackie sighed. "My little brother, he was just a kid."

"I'm sorry."

"Not your fault." Jackie sighed. She then shook her head and looked up. "Anything else?"

"No, that's it."

"Okay, now if you excuse me, I need to go home."

"You mean, here isn't your home?"

"No, it's a home away from home, but I have my own home."

"So, what, you live a double life?"

"Yeah. It's as exhausting as it sounds." Jackie went back into her room to collect her hoodie and pulled it over her head, then moved to put the Bento Boxes back in her bag.

"Then, how come more people don't know about you?"

"Because we don't want them to. You've ever seen or read Harry Potter?"

"Yeah?"

"It's pretty much like that. There's a hidden world that we don't want normal people to know about. That would not normally include you, but we're making an exception, given the circumstances."

"So, you don't have a name for us? Like, Muggles, or Mundane?"

"No, you're just non-Descendants, or normal people." Jackie came back to the door, making sure she still had everything in her pockets and that her bag was secure on her back.

"Isn't that just admitting that you're freaks?"

Jackie's expression darkened. "I wouldn't throw that word around. People around here don't take words like that kindly."

"Oh come on! What are you guys going to do?"

Jackie raised her hand and fired an ice shard, which caught the shoulder of his shirt and pinned him to the opposite wall.

"That." Said Jackie, before going over and freeing him. Once he was free, she then grabbed his shoulder and swept his legs out from underneath him, causing him to fall to the rock floor with a thump.

"And that." She added, stepping back to let him get back on his own.

"Ow, alright, point taken." Calvin got up, adjusting his glasses to make sure they were on straight.

"Good. Oh, and about Mimic."

Calvin's expression darkened. "What about her?"

Jackie sighed. "I don't know what happened between you two, and frankly I don't care, but your sister is back from the dead. At least try to appreciate that."

"She was a brat and weirdo back then and she still is now." Calvin scowled. "And this is nothing to do with you!"

"It had nothing to do with you when I said I'd lost my brother, I still told you!" Jackie cried, losing her patience. "I'm not saying you two should become buddy buddy best friends! I'm just asking that you at least attempt to make peace with each other."

"It's none of your business!"

"I don't care Calvin Louten!" Jackie took a deep breath, regaining control of her temper before things got ugly. "Just consider it, okay?"

She didn't even wait for a reply as she mentally called for Taboo, and walked off with her ice tiger at her heels.


	18. Chapter 18

**18-Be a Bro**

Mim was listening to Jack recall the last time he was in London, he had been chasing down a rogue blizzard that Zvezda had let get way out of hand, when Calvin trudged in and leaned against a wall, looking at her. He had a look on that she recognized all too well. He wanted to talk.

She told herself not to do it,to focus on Jack's story, laugh with Tooth and nudge North when he made weird comments, but years of knowing that something was on Calvin's mind had made her realize that on some rare occasions it was something actually important. So she internally groaned and stood. Kissing Jack on the cheek with a quick "be right back" she made her way over to Calvin. If Jack was worried about her abrupt exit, he didn't show it.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" she said, guarded knowing that anything could happen here, with him at least.

"Little-Miss-Mini-Boyfriend said we need to bury the hatchet." Calvin was working to keep the annoyance out of his voice. She was vaguely impressed. She had always had the better self control, for...obvious reasons.

"Her name is Jackie. And I can bury the hatchet in your head." she sent back. She kept it clipped. He was the one who wanted to talk to her, so she didn't want to waste too much breath in case she ticked him off, which was way too easy to do.

"She has this thing about siblings or something." Cal was uncomfortable. Something sadistic in her was enjoying it much to her distaste, nothing ever got under his skin since he was so aggressive.

"Will you stop beating around the bush big bro." she pushed. Gosh, he was being hesitant and she had ditched her loving boyfriend for these few minutes.

"I don't know, just whatever."

"Fine, when you figure this out, tell me, but I have to go." Mim returned to Jack who caught her up on his renegade tales. It really irked Calvin that she was so independent. She had always been below him to some degree. Not that he was power hungry, but that he really had no influence over her, nothing to say that could turn her head. He didn't know how to deal with a powerful Nym, or Mim, or whatever.

Mim on the other hand kept these thoughts with her for several hours after. Jackie had been insistent during the first battle with Colin,about her going to find Cal. Now she had approached Calvin with something about sibling stuff. She knew Jackie had a brother, but not much beyond that.

"A popsicle for your thoughts." Jack offered a grape pop he had gotten from the Mess Hall. He playfully pulled it out of her reach as she went to grasp.

"Remember, for your thoughts." he chided.

"My brother is just being a pain." Mim told him, not wanting to tell him about siblings and stuff since he had lost his sister in the worst way possible, by him dying. He looked at her and knew she was holding something back.

"C'mon, just tell me." he probed. he put a chilly hand on her shoulder.

"I'm going to go fly for a bit. Who knows? Maybe Colin is working his way here!" she forced a smile and began to briskly walk to the departure cavern. Jack was about to follow her when Tooth bombarded in with something about the airconditioner being broken, along with a speech about the sugar in popsicles ruining his teeth.

Mim had lied. She didn't fly. She ran and felt ease with her feet pounding into the earth. She had taken a more remote portal so she could run. The tall buildings of Boston were ahead as she sprinted on the elevated highways that wove over and under each other.

Standing under the John Hancock building, she simply watched and waited until a familiar mop of hair appeared in the crowds, albeit that mop was brown not white.

"James, can I talk to you?" she lunged through a few business people and latched onto his shoulder.

"Sure, but I'm Jacob." the boy responded with a grin that was a dead ringer for Jack's. She couldn't help but smile. They ended up sitting down on a bench in Kenmore Square, with Jacob sitting with a bluetooth in his ear. Both he and his brother carried one in case they need to talk to a being of belief, in public.

"So why the tet a tet, Mim? Don't you Guardians have wicked awesome resources?" Jacob leaned back on the bench with his hands behind his head and looked at her, which was cleverly disguised as reading the name of a bar behind her. "What could you possibly need from me?"

"I was wondering if you knew anything about Jackie's brother." she put forth, tentatively. Her curiosity was gnawing at her and she wanted, no needed, to know why Jackie was so involved in her and Calvin's odd relationship.

"I know she had a brother." he responded, leaning forward and crossing his arms, "and that she's really touchy about it."

He uncrossed his arms and pulled out a water bottle from his bag, full but room temperature. Deftly with a small gesture, perfect slivers of ice floated in the clear liquid. Mim watched as he did this and then melted the ice with a small flame. He nearly dropped the water bottle as heat and the Beck Boys don't mix, but he laughed and iced it again, which she promptly melted.

It would have continued if she hadn't pressed the conversation.

"Do you have any idea why she's so sensitive about it?" Mim wondered aloud.

"Nah, she never talks about it. I wouldn't suggest asking her either. James tried once and it didn't end well. He never got to finish the sentence because she just gave him this look that sent him running for the hills." he smiled at the memory but then sobered as he returned his attention to the Guardian.

"She didn't get angry?"

"Nope. She doesn't get angry much, if she is angry then you know that something's gone horribly wrong, she's more likely to just get irritated. Taboo's the one who's going to snap at you. Jackie, being angry…"

Jacob shuddered. "I've seen it once and never want to see again."

"Is that supposed to put me off?"

"No, I doubt Jackie will explode at you. She knows you'd kick her ass."

"I don't want to do that!"

"That's not the point!" Jacob laughed. "I'm just giving you some background."

"Anyway, thanks, I was just curious. I'd ask Jack but-"

"You don't want him to worry." Jacob finished.

"I'm scared he'll think worse of me for it." she finished. It was true. His opinion meant the world to her.

Mim nodded and stood from the bench and waved before doing a short flight to the tunnel. Jackie had handed her a card of sorts that let her get in and out without setting off the alarm. It was a loaner, but very handy.

Neither the Descendant or the Guardian, had noticed the boy in the stolen Hockey uniform, standing nearby. He had rainbow eyes and had recorded their whole conversation on his phone.

"This will be very useful." he said before turning tail into the city.


	19. Chapter 19

**19-Infiltration**

The first thing Sandy noticed once the lilac light faded was he wasn't in the base anymore.

Instead he was in the middle of nowhere, there wasn't a building for miles, and only bare earth and scrub.

"What the 'eck?" Bunny was just as confused. "We should be in the HOG base! Why are we here?"

Sandy shrugged and formed a compass rose and a question mark.

Bunny lifted his nose to the sky and took a good sniff. The scent he got was very familiar. "Australia."

Sandy folded his arms and formed another question mark.

"I don't know either!" Protested Bunny. "There's gotta be a town 'round 'ere somewhere. We can find a Tunnel to the base."

Sandy shook his head.

"I'm not gonna set off the alarms this time mate. They'll let us in."

Sandy nodded in agreement, then formed an image of a someone shaking their head and then of a file crossed out.

"Why wouldn't they let us see it? Ya know what they're like, they'll bend over backwards for us."

Sandy formed Colin's silhouette and crossed it out, then formed the image of a safe and locked the file in it.

"They won't let us see it because they don't want us to know about Colin?"

Sandy nodded.

"Well, that's stupid, they should know we're comin'."

Sandy formed the image of Jackie and a tick, then a group of people with an X.

"She'd have told 'em, they're her co-workers!"

Sandy gave him a disbelieving look and made the image of Jackie's head bigger.

"Alright, it is Jackie. She's more of a 'figure it out on her own' person."

Bunny shook his head. "We're gonna have to sneak in, aren't we?"

Sandy nodded like it was obvious.

"No need for that! We just find a town with a Branch and wait for a Tunnel ta open and go down it. C'mon, there were loads of lights in Australia on their globe."

They eventually found their way to suburb close to Melbourne. A very familiar suburb.

This is where they'd done battle against Pitch, Lupine and their Descendants.

It had also been the first time that the Guardians and the Human Order of Guardians had fought alongside since, well, ever. It had been the first time they'd done it, the first time they'd needed to do it.

Yeah, they'd fought alongside Jackie and her Branch before that, but Jackie was, and had always been, a special case. She was the first Descendant to have the sheer gall and desperation to go to the North Pole to seek the Guardians, twice.

The first time she'd been seeking help, the second time she'd actually saved their hide.

Bunny couldn't help but reflect a bit. He still remembered the angry young teen who tried to argue him down. Pale as anything, not quite as skinny as Jack and insisting on standing in the North Pole in a t-shirt despite having just come in from the weather outside the Pole. The only real difference nearly thirteen years had done was fill her out a bit and widen her emotional spectrum from anger and emotionless to almost normal.

Almost, according to North she looked like she going to faint with happiness when she found the Pole library, that wasn't normal.

Ah, who was he kidding? She's a Descendant, there's nothing normal about any of them!

Sandy patted Bunny's leg and pointed down the street they were walking down. At the other end was a much older looking Alexander. His hair was streaked with grey and he'd decided to grow a beard, although he still moved quickly and smoothly.

Without a word the two took off after him, Sandy flew above him while Bunny tried to stick to the shadows as he ran along the road. Hopefully the Head would lead them to a Tunnel to the base.

Alexander turned to head to the park, when he stopped, his ears twitching. He could have sworn he'd heard something. Like, giant rabbit feet.

He turned around to see, nothing. Just a normal street behind him.

He turned back to head on his way and Sandy and Bunny let out the breath they had been holding.

Bunny stopped pressing himself against the wall and Sandy got off the roof. They continued following him and Bunny took extra care to keep silent.

To normal people, he would be, but Alexander was one of his Descendants, still something that after all this time he couldn't wrap his head around. Therefore, he had more sensitive ears than anyone else, even in his old age. He looked at least sixty.

Alexander made his way to the empty park and found the purple flower just by the flower beds. Sandy and Bunny watched from trees as he tapped his foot beside it and disappeared down it.

Sandy darted after him, but Bunny thought better of it. Sandy was silent, it was part of his job. Bunny, Alexander would definitely be able to hear Bunny, and then he'd want to know why they were here and make it so much more complicated and annoying than it needed to be.

So he waited while Sandy followed Alexander down.

Sandy was worried.

He stayed just far back enough for Alexander not to see him as he ran down the Tunnel at a speed that would put Usain Bolt to shame.

Sandy remembered the method of getting in, and how it announced that there was a guest. He had no idea how far the system could tell that there was somebody else there, or even if the security system was still the same! Judging by Alexander's appearance, they'd gone at least twenty years in the future.

Alexander went up to the end of the Tunnel and placed his hand against the wall, letting the system scan him.

Sandy stayed as far back as he dared. Close enough to go in after him, but hopefully far enough away to keep out of the system range.

"Recognised, Alexander Banks." Said the system, and Sandy let out a silent sigh of relief as the Tunnel exit crumbled without any issue. He then flew forward as fast as he could before the Tunnel could close again, and floated up and out into the Departure Cavern.

Alexander spun on the spot, looking around for something. He knew he felt something, and with things as they were, it wouldn't do any harm to be careful.

After not finding anything, he summoned an earth pillar from the cavern floor and stepped on it for him to take him to the rest of the base. He made a mental note to bring up tightening the security system at the meeting he was going to.

Sandy floated down and considered going back for Bunny, but he then heard someone call Alexander's name.

"Hoy! Alexander!" Called a male English accented voice. "How's it holding up Oz side?"

"Just fine Harry." Said Alexander with less enthusiasm. "You?"

"Same old, same old. Any luck with, you know."

"No sign of him." Alexander sighed, entering the Main Cavern. "I'll give the full report in the meeting."

Meeting

Sandy practically abandoned all notion of going to get Bunny. If he could get in on the meeting, then maybe he could find out something there. The records and files weren't exactly going anywhere.

Sandy floated down and peeked through the corridor that led to the Main Cavern, both Descendants had their backs to him, and he quickly identified Harry. Bright blonde hair, short and stocky and was throwing a ball of Dreamsand between his hands as he talked. Clearly one of Sandy's Descendants.

Sandy wasn't quite as unnerved by the idea as Bunny was. He had seen his Descendants around a lot over the years, just chose not to interact with them.

Sandy floated past the two a made his way to the large, dark wood double doors. Looking over at the two Descendants, Sandy opened the door as little as he could, and slipped inside.

It was empty thankfully, and Sandy took a second to look at it, since he'd never been in here before.

It hadn't changed much since the time he'd just come from. What he didn't know was new were the tapestries that hung behind each chair. It wasn't enough that each Descendant symbol was carved into the top of the chair, now it hung behind them as well. Combined with relevant colours and other pictures, the one closest to him, the blue one, also had snowmen and snow angels in the design.

At the back of the Chamber and behind the head of the table hung a tapestry that was made up of red, yellow, green, purple, blue, black and white, all with the symbol of HOG in the middle.

Sandy didn't have time to get a good look at the tapestries as the door creaked open behind him. He dived under the long earthen table and stayed still, hoping whoever had come in hadn't seen him.

He seemed to have gotten away with it as whoever it was sat heavily in the purple chair. Whoever it was there was quickly followed by Alexander and Harry, with Harry sitting in the yellow chair. It seems that Samson had retired by this point.

"One day, Jackie will actually be among the first to arrive." Alexander joked, and Claire responded.

"Give her a break, you know how stressed she's gotten from this."

"It is kinda her fault." Said Harry.

"We can't deny that, but she's been working herself into a frenzy. It wouldn't surprise me if she hasn't slept."

"It's true to character."

Sandy started as Tracey stepped out of the shadows. She sounded older, but still strong.

"Suppose it is." Said Alexander.

"I should have known there was a reason I was sneezing outside."

Sandy watched Jackie walk in with Taboo by her side. She certainly looked older, her face was more lined with dark shadows under her eyes and she had a snowy white streak in her hair along her temple. Other than that, she looked the same as always.

On the other hand, she looked and sounded tired, exactly what Claire had been worried about.

"Maybe you should sit this meeting out Jackie. You look exhausted."

"I'm fine. Just waiting on Lily?" Jackie asked as she sat down.

"Not anymore." Came a Welsh accented voice from the door. "You just missed me."

A young woman with brown hair and blue eyes walked in and sat in the red chair. Jason also seemed to have retired.

"So, now we're all here." Claire took charge. "The most pressing question is, any news on Colin?"

"No sign of him." Said Alexander. "It's like he's disappeared off the face of the earth."

"What about the Three Lights?" Asked Jackie. "Any news on them?"

"We just found Ancaerdem, and the whole place was burnt." Said Harry. "It's been returned to Tempro, but let's be honest here. We can guess what this means."

"And, for the final nail in the coffin." Said Tracey. "No sign of Lupine either. The most recent scents we can find are where Ancaerdem was found."

"Are you sure?" Asked Jackie. "Have you asked the other packs?"

"The other neutral packs, I have asked. Black Furs? No. Things are tense enough among us as they are. Going to them is enough for a civil war. You know that."

There was a soft thud, and Sandy could imagine that Jackie had placed her head on the table.

"No matter, it's still pointing to Colin having gone to the past."

"We knew it was going to happen." Said Alexander. "It was just a matter of time."

Jackie appeared to slump back in her chair. "I tried. I really did. I thought if I could just get through to him…"

"Yeah, you did kinda mess up here." Said Harry and Sandy winced. This was clearly a man for whom tact was not his strong point.

"I know." Jackie growled. "He was under me, I was in charge of keeping him in line, and I failed."

"Well, he always was, a little. Off." Said Lily.

"Not always." Corrected Jackie. "He was perfectly nice, if, quiet, kid. I just put too much pressure on him."

"It didn't exactly take long for him to snap. How long did it take for him to declare that he hated you and HOG?" Asked Alexander.

"Five years." Said Jackie. "He was ten."

"Well, the hockey incident, certainly didn't help." Added Claire.

"Hey, we did all we could to cover that up!" Cried Lily. "Memory spells can only go so far on that many people!"

"Okay, let's stop." Said Tracey, bringing everything to order. "We can't look back on what happened and say how we should have done things differently. Colin has gone to the past, and most of us in this room remember how that went."

"There's no guarantee that the outcome will be the same." Said Alexander. "Time is an odd thing, Colin still might change something. Make it turn out differently to how we remember."

"I doubt it will change much." Said Jackie without much emotion. "The outcome is likely to be the same."

"He's going to come back at some point." Reasoned Lily, "So what do we do in the meantime?"

"He can't get off lightly." Said Claire. "He's attacked and kidnapped a Guardian and Head, engaged the Guardians in combat without provocation and kidnapped non-Descendants if things stay the same. That's enough for exile."

"That's just giving him what he wants." Said Jackie. "He's wanted nothing to do with us for years. Sending him away would only be giving in to what he wants."

"What do you suggest then? Imprisonment? He's going to college!" Said Lily. "We don't have the grounds from the normal world to imprison him here! And what about his parents?!"

"We tell Calvin. We never did wipe his memory, he knows the score." Said Jackie. "Just, don't tell Kaylen the full details. His mom was always was too protective."

"Which didn't help." Scoffed Alexander.

"Again with hindsight being 20:20." Said Tracey.

"Imprisonment is probably the best option." Said Claire, "If he comes back the same way…"

"That's the one thing I hope does change." Said Jackie.

"Do we want to know?" Asked Harry, referring to him and Lily.

"No, you don't." Said Jackie, in a voice that made it clear that she wasn't going to discuss it any further.

"But if he doesn't, imprisonment might not work." Mused Alexander.

"What else have we got?" Asked Jackie. "Making him clean the Training Halls isn't exactly enough."

"I suggest we discuss this more on Colin's return. We can hold him temporarily, while we come to that decision." said Claire. "What else should be done?"

"We tell Calvin what's happening." Said Jackie.

"And we look elsewhere for Descendants of Mimic. Nym had cousins, right?" Asked Harry.

"I'll look more into that. I think she had two." Said Jackie. "Are there any other points that need to brought up this meeting?"

The meeting fell into more mundane topics and Sandy relaxed slightly, trying to take in all the information he'd just heard. It wasn't much, but it was something, more than they had known before.

Since he was stuck here until the meeting was over, he wondered whether or not Bunny had managed to get in.


	20. Chapter 20

**20-Library Hunt**

Mim had left Jacob Beck and returned to HQ, hoping that no one had noticed her little field trip. Sure she had made up a quick excuse for Jack, which left her feeling as if a rock had settled in her gut, but she didn't want to miss out on any developments.

After all, to some degree this was all her family's issues deciding to haunt her. This was almost as bad as the time Man in Moon had decided to send them all to high school...again, at least for her.

"You were gone a long time." Jack met her in the Departure Cavern. He was about to go looking for her. "I was getting worried you hadn't been lying about Colin being close."

Jack pulled her in for a kiss, which she savored, but her mind was no where near his lips, no matter how much she loved them.

He led her back into the Main Cavern, and then into the Mess Hall. Guardians didn't need to eat all that much, if anything, but they still enjoyed food when they could manage it. Cookies were always available at the Pole and Tooth Palace had a stash of sugar free snacks, but warm food was a rarity.

Jack ordered ice cream, which didn't surprise her in the least. She decided to request a small pizza, warm with lots of pineapples and cheese.

The flavor brought her back to when she was normal, as normal as she could be. The cheese was perfectly gooey and the sweet pineapple burst in her mouth. It was food heaven. The only thing that could make it better was bacon. So she got some of that too.

"Something is definitely wrong with you, snowflake." Jack was staring at her and her thoughts brought her back down to earth.

"What do you mean? I'm fine. Maybe a few bruises but that's all." Mim wheeled back.

"You only eat bacon when you're freaking out and the girl who stresses conversation over food has remained eerily silent. Please, tell me what's going on." Jack peered at her eyes, saddened to see that Mim wasn't truly looking back. She was somewhere else entirely, but that somewhere must have inspired her because…

"I just remembered. I have to do something real quick. Love you!" she pecked him on the cheek and suddenly left him alone with his ice cream. The winter boy immediately lost his appetite.

Mim walked as quickly as she could without being conspicuous to the Records Room. Jackie must have a file here. Everyone did. Running straight to the pale blue section on the Descendants of Jack Frost, she slid her fingers along the rows upon rows of tabs. There weren't many of the pale blue files, only about two shelves, so she quickly found what she was looking for.

"Aha!" she exclaimed and yanked a file free.

"File JF015. Davies, comma, Jacqueline" she said aloud to herself. The preliminary stuff was boring. Date of birth, residence, Branch, title, powers, allergies and impairments, where her glasses were noted. Where was the bio page? She kept flipping and flipping. Jackie's file had a ton of papers in it.

"Mim?" it was Jack!

Just as he rounded the corner into her aisle she had hastily put the file back in place. But not before managing a small paper cut from the neighboring files. Wincing slightly she turned to Jack and rehearsed possible alibis. She wanted to vomit. Lying to him was killing her.

"What are you doing in here?" he reached for her hands only to spot the papercut. She was relieved that it distracted him.

"Ouch. Rough riffling?" he asked searching her face for an explanation.

"Oh that. I was just wondering if they had a file on me. In case it helped ya know." she wanted to bite her tongue out. Her pro-lying skills had abandoned her when ever it came to Jack. Gosh!

"You're in the totally wrong section snowflake." he suspected her. Mim began to ramble off on how she got distracted and found interesting files etc.

He looked at her for a long moment then kissed her and told her that he'd be back later to join her. Now it was Mim's turn. Was this crazy mission ruining everything?!

Jack was upset, really upset. Mim was acting evasive which she was known to be, but not to him! Never to him! He had seen a papercut, bleeding and files ajar in his section of the Records Room. She had left for awhile and didn't even say hello. She was up and ditching them all the time.

Calvin was sitting in his temporary room, reading a book on Advanced Accounting. The room was large and had about ten beds in, five against each wall. Each bed had a trunk at the foot of it and at the far end, where he was sitting and on the other end to the curtained entrance, was a large desk that took up the far wall with several chairs against it. Essentially it was like an old fashioned dormitory. Or barracks.

His head was on his arm until his head was suddenly very cold. He looked up to see snowflakes falling on his glasses. He was not getting any more used to all this nonsense with these people, or creatures he thought of the huge rabbit and the bird queen, with powers.

Jack looked like a burgeoning blizzard as he stormed in. Calvin was suddenly nervous.

"This is all your fault. You had to be so freakin' mean to her and now she is very upset and it's all your fault." Jack pointed at him right between the eyes and Calvin twitched back.

"I didn't do anything Frozone. She's put up with me for years, and that was nothing, trust me."

"I have no reason to."

"Geez it's an expression." Calvin was so obnoxious, "Have you ever considered that it's you Mr. Amazo-boyfriend."

"Quit it with the names. I know you have a part in this. What did you say to her?" Jack was thinking back to when she had left his storytelling moment to deal with him.

"You want the truth, I was trying to make peace. Your great grand girl was pushing for it." Calvin stood now, being slightly taller than Jack.

"I don't believe that for a minute." Jack stuck his staff under Cal's chin, glaring upwards.

"I don't believe you! You and your world are crazy." Calvin tried to gain ground but he was failing big time.

"Oh you do, or would easily know. But just because you won't hear me or see me after all this, doesn't mean your roommate won't wake up to find you frozen to the ceiling."

Jack stormed back out. Sure, he had beat Calvin down, but what scared him was the possibility he might be right. Was all this family business making Mim regret being with him?


	21. Chapter 21

21-Revelations and Future Tech

Bunny didn't hang around long.

It occurred to him that he was waiting for someone to open the Tunnel, when he could do that too.

"What the heck am I doin', sitting in a tree like this?"

Bunny shook his head and leapt out, landing right by the flower. He tapped his foot twice and disappeared down the Tunnel.

All too quickly the end of the Tunnel came up, and Bunny skidded to a halt, having forgotten that the Tunnels HOG uses do that.

He stood in front of the bare wall of earth, before deciding to throw caution to the wind and place his paw where he'd seen Jackie place it. You never know, this far in the future maybe they were welcome to come in and out of here.

"Recognised, E. Aster Bunnymund." Said the system and Bunny let out a sigh of relief. This had made all of Sandy's sneaking pointless, but better safe than sorry.

"Welcome." continued the system. "Shall I inform the Heads of your arrival?"

"No!" Cried Bunny, suddenly panicked. "Definitely not! No way."

"Understood." The Tunnel exit crumbled and and Bunny stepped through, finding himself on the worryingly narrow spiralling path. He didn't even dare lean over to try and find the bottom.

"Ah heck." He muttered, pressing back against the wall as he tried not to look down. It was going to be a long walk.

He finally got to the bottom and sniffed the air cautiously, keeping a nose out for anyone around. There were a lot of scents around, but nothing close by, so Bunny walked right into the Main Cavern.

"Sandy?" He called softly, looking around for his friend, but he didn't appear to be in the enormous room.

Bunny shrugged to himself and jogged over to the rainbow door, figuring that Sandy had gone straight to the Records Room. Also he could hear muffled talking from the Council Chamber and he didn't want to be in the Head's way when they got out.

The Records Room was completely devoid of life, even of Sandy, which made Bunny annoyed. He decided not to express it, he was in here now, time to get on with it.

It made sense to check the black and white files first, of which there were a grand total of three. Along the same shelf were a bunch of fist sized, opal coloured orbs, which Bunny ignored, moving straight for the files. Each one was emblazoned with HOG's logo, which you couldn't really seem to escape around here.

"M002. Profile, Louten, Colin." Bunny muttered, flicking through the file, this should have what he needed.

It wasn't thick, he glanced through the first bit, noting that there was little in the powers section. It merely said, 'pyrokinesis (mimitation), emotion sensing, emotion influence (eye contact required).

Bunny did smirk that in the allergy section it said 'peanuts'. You never really think that the guy who's causing you so much trouble would have such a mundane allergy.

Bunny flicked to the next page, to find that there wasn't one.

He frowned. That was it? No bio, no backstory? Nothing?

Bunny stifled a sigh and moved onto the next file. This one was a little more promising, it had general Descendant information.

'Signature colour: black and white

Signature weapon: None

Symbol: Chinese dragon coiled around balancing scales.

(Note, this is information gathered from one Descendant, this is not a final copy)

Seems to be able to only copy one specific power, depending on their primary emotion. For example, if the primary emotion is anger, their copy power, or 'mimitation' would be fire. That is currently the only example. Like Mimic they seem to not gain the full power, only approximately half of it.

Also appears to be able to sense, and in some cases be influenced by, other's emotions. Can also invoke emotions in another person upon eye contact, seemingly at will.

Physical characteristics cannot be truly determined, however it is assumed that having rainbow eyes and either black or white streaks in their hair would be the defining physical characteristic.'

Interesting information, but not enough. The eye thing, which was probably important, had been mentioned in the previous file.

Bunny put it back and moved onto the final file. It was also pretty short and was just titled, 'Ice Hockey Incident'

Curious, Bunny read on.

'Date of occurrence December 14, 2035

Time of occurrence: 14.57

Descendant(s) involved: Colin Louten Descendant of Mimic

Incident description:

Colin's ice hockey team Youth Terriers were competing against Mini-Monsters and Colin's team was losing. According to Branch members in the audience Colin appeared calm initially, but eventually the frustration of his teammates seemed to overwhelm him.

Fire erupted from Colin, melting the ice rink, warping the plastic barriers and giving many of the players around him serious burns.

Steps taken:

Memory wipe spell on audience members and both teams, wiped CCTV footage, burn medicine applied to casualties-healed within minutes. Planted suggestion that electronics failed and that rink was closed until the electronics were fixed. During this time Descendants of Frost replaced the ice, the barriers were fixed and a Descendant of North dealt with the CCTV.

Drawbacks:

Some players and audience members show some signs of remembering something. Not definite, but team members have been acting uncharacteristically wary of Colin. Social situation plummeted until Colin's self control began to deteriorate.

The file ended there, but Bunny doubted it covered the full scale of the incident. The file read like something you'd put in an accident book, so didn't really say how horrific it must have been for the people involved. People screaming in panic and pain as the fire spread everywhere, and in the centre of it, Colin, probably horrified.

Bunny let out a long breath and put the file back. That was not something he had expected to see.

There were no other files, so Bunny turned his eyes to the orbs, and out of curiosity he picked one up. It surprisingly light, as though he'd just picked up a flimsy, glass ball.

He frowned, gently tossing it from one paw to the other. He hadn't seen anything like this back in his time, so he assumed that these were more a product of this time.

He looked up from the fragile ball, and saw something at the far end of the shelf that he hadn't noticed before. It looked a bit like an old cassette player, except where you'd put the cassette was a hole, about the same size as the ball he was holding.

There was also a light bulb, similar to what was on the SPARK things, so Bunny figured that it cast some kind of hologram. A hologram which wouldn't really work in a shelf about the same size at.

The device had a handle, so Bunny picked it up and went over to the Globe, where there were tables. He placed it there, and with some trepidation, placed the ball in the slot.

The ball began to spin slowly and vertically, and a hologram did indeed pop up at the top. It showed a woman, about forty or so, with long blonde, messy hair and brown, no, hazel eyes, Bunny had to squint for that.

"Is this working?" She asked in an English accent, presumably to herself. "Hello? How now brown cow? The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. Testing testing, 1 2, 1 2. Wibbly wobbley ting tang, tippy tappy doo da."

The image froze and the ball stopped. Bunny had to blink to get his senses back together, that was one of the weirdest things he'd heard in a while.

He swapped it for another, and was quickly annoyed to see the same woman again. However, before he could turn it off she moved out of the way, revealing an older looking Jackie, sitting on a sofa opposite the camera.

"What is that thing?" Jackie asked, probably meaning what Bunny was watching it on.

"Something me and my Branch's Descendants of North have been working on. Supposedly a better and more discreet way of recording things. It hasn't really been tested yet, so I've got the mic running as usual."

There was the sound of someone sitting on a chair.

"So." Said the other woman. "Interview starting at Two PM, BST. Date is eleventh of May 2044. Jackie, you know what to do."

Jackie coughed and shifted position slightly, causing Taboo to raise her head into shot, before lowering it again.

"This is for future reference, involving Colin Louten." Jackie was doing her best to look emotionless, but there was definitely some, resistance there.

"We knew about Colin since he was born, but didn't approach him and his parents until he was about five years old. We wanted to be sure that he was a Descendant. Looking at past records it was almost guaranteed, but it pays to be cautious.

He was a shy boy, he was hiding behind his dad's leg when I visited. Even then he had the white bangs, and his eyes, like there are now, were a striking rainbow colour. We knew we had our guy."

Jackie coughed and took a drink from a mug before continuing.

"As there are only a few Descendants of Jack Frost, roughly forty at the time of recording this, I was expected to be Colin's Head. So, I was in charge of teaching him about HOG, the Guardians and the values we uphold. We introduced him to the Boston Branch, who helped. Myself and their Descendant of Sandman tried to teach him about control and balance, which for the most part went down well. He still had a few issues when it came to registering other people's emotions, but after less than a year he no longer inadvertently caused someone's emotion to change.

After a while he started asking questions. Why was he the only Descendant of Mimic? Why was I his Head? Would Mimic ever visit him?

I told him, and said that the last one was up to Mimic, and he didn't take it well. He was around seven at the time, and already getting bullied at school for his eyes. Most Descendants get bullied, so I didn't pay much heed to it. Something I should have done."

"This isn't about looking back and seeing what we could change." Commented the other woman. "This is just to get it on record for me to write up."

"I know, I know, I'm getting off track. Where was I?"

"On Colin getting bullied."

"Oh yeah. Like I said I didn't pay that much attention to it, but over the years Colin seemed to withdraw himself from me. He used to at least respect me, after a while he said that he downright hated me."

Jackie rubbed her eyes beneath her glasses before continuing.

"At the same time he starting getting more angry, lashing out at his Branch members, other Descendants, and as I understand his father, Calvin, for being the one directly related to Mimic. By nine he started showing signs of being able to use fire, which made me uneasy, but I tried to push it aside. It wasn't, and still isn't, as powerful as the Descendants of Solarion or Jack O'Lantern, and I think he took that hard.

I got him some books from the Descendants of Jack O'Lantern about fire control, and he promptly burnt them, telling me very angrily that he could do it by himself, without any, and I quote, 'stupid HOG or Descendant help.' I got annoyed with him, and he shot back with that he hated HOG, and he hated the Guardians, me and Mimic in particular."

Jackie shook her head, and took another sip from her mug.

"Did he say why?" The other woman prompted, and Jackie nodded.

"Yes. He said that he was a freak, and it was our fault and Mimic's fault that he was one. I tried reasoning with him, but he wouldn't have it, saying he wanted nothing to do with us . He even said that he wanted to leave, which I refused. No one should have that happen.

He apologised a few days later, but I have a feeling it just culminated over the years in silence. Well, relative silence. He became more snappish and often went too far in sparring matches, he was even angry when he got his armour for his eighteenth birthday, something that most Descendants receive with celebration.

When he made the local ice hockey team, I was happy for him. I watched his first match, without him knowing, and he looked happier than I'd seen him in years. But, the hockey incident."

"Well, that's a different interview altogether." Said the other woman.

"Yeah. I think I'm almost done though."

"Hmm, has he shown any desire to do what you remember him doing in your past?"

"At this rate, it wouldn't surprise me. I hope he doesn't, but there's only so much I can do. I think I've done too much already."

Jackie picked up her mug and took a long drink, leaning back in the sofa. When she was finished she nodded to the other woman.

"I'm done. Anything else you can think of?"

"Nope. Interview finished at two seventeen PM BST, same day."

There were a few seconds of odd clunks, and the image stopped.

Bunny let out the breath he hadn't realised that he'd been holding. Things made a lot more sense now. They still had no ideas of Colin's weaknesses, but this, this was enough to be able to draw some things from.

He put the stuff back, his head still spinning from the sudden influx of information. He couldn't take any of this back, this would be giving Jackie too much of a glimpse into her future. Instead he committed it all to memory, and hoped that would be enough.

He heard the door to the Records Room open and he jumped up onto the top of the shelves. He lay still as the voices got closer, voices that he didn't recognise.

Didn't matter, he was stuck up here until they went away.


	22. Chapter 22

22-Figurative Stab in the Heart

Mim was waiting outside. She began to walk towards him but then stopped after seeing him with imaginary storm clouds over his head. Was he mad at her? She choked back a sob as he went to the Departure Cavern. Racing over, she handed him the card to get back in. Keeping her eyes to the floor she muttered.

"Are you alright?"

"Just fine." Jack bit back his voice so it came out sounding not fine at all. To make up for it he gently tried to take the card and give her hand a squeeze but she had left after his excuse and held the card there with telekinesis.

This only preyed on Jack's worry that he was the problem Mim was facing.

He left through the Departure Cavern and up into the woods close to his lake. He froze himself a little island and sat on it, knees hugging into his chest.

How was he the problem? Mim had seemed happy as ever when they went on all those searched across the world. Jack wished he had been able to show her the best parts.

Maybe she was sad he hadn't tried to go with her, or be her search partner. She didn't seem to dislike Jackie though. Was she sad that he hadn't been active enough?

She had started being aloof once they had gotten back though. They had spent most of that time together. Maybe he was smothering her? Did she want some space because of all the family stuff? Jack really wasn't sure. Perhaps he should stay away and approach her after all this was over.

But if he wasn't being active enough that may cement the end of their relationship!

"Aghhhh!" he vented his frustration into the late spring woods. He was beginning to sweat in the oncoming heat, but he forced himself to stay a while longer. He stared into the trees, until all his mind could see was a burnt patch on a young sapling at the edge of the wood.

Burnt patch on a young sapling?

He flew off the ice which quickly melted and put his hand on the tree bark. It came off dusted with ash. Someone had made this mark recently or the ash would have worn away in the wind and rain. At the base of the tree was a package.

Opening it, Jack found a SPARK.

He looked at it, thinking it out. Jackie had made it clear that the SPARKs were in prototype and that very few people had them. But this one was different. It was sleeker with smoother buttons and all of it was silver and grey. Colin must have brought one from the future.

Pressing one of the buttons, the thing hummed to life and then quivered slightly before settling in his palm.

"Voice activation required." a smooth voice drones. It was like the voice at the HQ entrance. It was female, but unmistakably robotic.

"Umm, what?" Jack asked, feeling somewhat foolish for speaking to a small machine.

"Jack Frost recognized. Confirm center." the voice commanded. Now Jack was interested.

"Fun." he spoke dead serious, sitting with his back against the tree.

"Jack Frost, Guardian of Fun. Confirmed. Message initiated for Jack Frost." the female voice died out, and Colin's condescending tones resonated from the disc in his hand, which had developed a small layer of frost. They seemed to have fixed this little kink because when it had happened to Jackie's it had given off sparks.

"Hello Jack. This message was voice locked to you so I'm positive it's you. You may want to see something I saw today. This morning must have been lonely for you…"

The screen now lit up and Jack wanted to pelt someone with an iceball! It was Mim sitting on a park bench with a boy who looked a lot like him but with brown hair and eyes. It was one of the Beck Boys. Jacob he was sure. James hadn't inherited the birthmark that had been over his sister's right eye.

Mim was smiling and joking with him, like she did with him, up until recently. Their lips were moving but the video had no sound. Towards the end he saw Mim's face go to that sad place and then Jacob said something and she brightened. She had confided in him, but not Jack. His breath whooshed out of his lungs leaving him to gasp and grasp for something, anything to hold onto.

He twisted his staff in his hand and then began pushing buttons on the disc at random until the screen flashed and the video replayed.

He kept his eyes glued and then he repeated it again and again and again. His head was aching from the bright lights and as the sun went down, they blinded him in the twilight.

Each viewing made him feel not betrayed, but horribly hurt.

Her family being involved must have reminded her of what normal was like. She must miss it. Jack was hit with the realization that he couldn't give her normal. Jacob wasn't quite normal but he was more so than Jack.

He wanted to curl up under a rock. How could he have been so stupid?

He spent the next hour or so shooting things with ice just so he could watch them melt before his eyes. He wanted to melt too. Mim had always kept secrets, it was something that she acknowledged and tried to stop doing but Jack suddenly began to wonder if this wasn't the only time she had kept something important from him.

It was the only time she seemed flustered by anything that happened when they were apart. He didn't want to admit he was clingy, but she must've just been looking for a way to break it to him.

What a way to learn about it! By seeing her ditching him right and left. And for a guy who looked just like him no less.

Jack moped back to the base and entered in with no motivation to enter again.

He was welcomed by a frenzy.

Bunny and Sandy were back.


	23. Chapter 23

23-A Heart to Heart

Clack, clack!

Two wooden swords struck each other, each being wielded by two very different people. One was Jackie, the other was 22 year old Jamie Bennett.

He'd grown up a bit since the Battle of Belief. He now stood close to six foot, with his brown hair a little longer than it had been back then. Not enough to impair his vision or anything, it was just floppy.

"Come on Bennett." Jackie goaded, partially in instructor mode. "Where's your guard?"

She sent a couple of strikes down, which Jamie blocked, then swept at his side, which he also blocked. Jamie then went on the attack, swinging at Jackie. The two swords met, crossed between them, and Jackie saw her opening. The angle Jamie was at left him wide open.

She dove in and tapped him on the chest with the point of the practice sword. "You lose."

"Ach! I have been defeated!" Cried Jamie melodramatically, dropping his sword and collapsing to his knees, hand on his chest and tongue sticking out.

Jackie laughed. "Your head shall make a fine trophy!" She joked morbidly, pretending to take a swing at Jamie's neck.

"You'll never take me alive!" Cried Jamie, grinned as he sprang up and ran from his girlfriend to the door. Jackie continued grinning as she pursued, her bare feet slapping on the wooden floor.

"Don't be such a wimp! You won't feel a thing!"

"I like my head!" Jamie protested, diving out of the way and rolling to standing position, hitting the bare wall and sending the bare light bulb swinging.

The meeting place of the Burgess Branch wasn't anything spectacular, it was about the size of a village hall, and seemed to be made of the same kind of material. There were targets at the far end and a door that led to a side room where chairs and equipment were stored. Above the pair were rafters which Jackie had climbed more than once, and two bare bulbs that lit the place.

The walls didn't have any windows, were lined with benches to sit on and were decorated with four photos. Each of the Branch in Central Park every time a new member joined, going back about twenty years. Nigel had dark hair in one of the early ones.

The room was surrounded by a network of underground corridors that were so twisty that any new members needed a map to get around for the first few months. The main entrance was in a side alley opposite Sally's flat, and there was an emergency exit in the equipment store that led to the bookshop that Tina, Sally and Jackie worked in.

Jamie ran for his sword and grabbed it in time to block a blow from above by Jackie, who raised her eyebrows.

"Playing possum were we?"

Jamie shrugged and attacked again, the sparring match starting anew.

It met an untimely end as Jackie's hoodie, which had been left on one of the benches along with a water bottle, started beeping.

Jackie paused in the match, and Jamie managed to get a hit, bopping her on the head.

"Ow." Said Jackie, more out of surprise as she rubbed her head and Jamie celebrated.

"And the underdog wins!" He cried, raising the wooden sword skyward.

"Good for you." Said Jackie with a smile, walking over to her hoodie. "Better see what this is about."

She pulled her SPARK out of her pocket and pressed the receive call button. Samson's face quickly appeared in the light.

"Jackie," He started to say something, but paused when he noticed that she wasn't in her hoodie, instead in her training shirt, which was sadly strappy, so revealed the large bite mark scar on her left shoulder and the bandages around her chest for the burn. The wounds from Lupine's teeth no longer needed it, but the burn was still red and blistered.

"I've not interrupted anything, have I?"

"Technically yes, but carry on."

"Bunnymund and Sandman have returned. I thought you'd like to know."

Jackie nodded. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

The call dropped and Jamie deemed it safe to approach. "Work?" He asked.

"Yep." Jackie sighed and sat down on the bench. "You know what they say, no rest for the wicked." She said before taking a long drink from her water bottle.

"Hey, you had one day break." Jamie shrugged. "Usually you're at it non stop."

Jackie rubbed the back her neck and stretched slightly. "I needed a bit of break. Don't get me wrong, the guys are great, but you forget this world exists, you know?"

"Even though you were travelling around it?" Jamie pointed a finger at her. "We are so going to London by the way."

"Deal." Confirmed Jackie. "It's just weird, half my world is monsters and immortals, the other half is, working in a shop."

"I wouldn't know." Jamie said with a shrug before reaching for his own water bottle. "Anyway, you'd better get going. Immortals await you."

"Better get changed first." Jackie said, gesturing to her strappy top and jogging bottoms. "Bunnymund might faint from the smell."

"I don't think you smell that bad. You just smell sweaty."

"Shame it freezing doesn't really seem to stop the smell, much."

Jamie wrapped an arm around Jackie and placed a kiss on her forehead. "I'll clear up. You'd better get going."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. See you when the world isn't ending."

"It still isn't Jamie."

"One day I'll be right about that."

Jackie shook her head with a smile, kissed Jamie on the cheek and left the meeting hall.

Half an hour later Jackie had met up with Taboo and was halfway down the Tunnel, still smiling. Something about seeing Jamie had put her in a good mood. No sign of her Branch, but she didn't mind, Tina and Sally needed to deal with jetlag, and Nigel was probably buried in gears at his house, trying to work on things he and his twin had discussed.

Jackie finally made it to the Main Cavern, and her smile started to fade. Something was up.

She wasn't the best at reading people, but even she could tell that Bunnymund and Sandman were worried about something, judging from their stances. Samson had a curious frown on his face, like he was thinking about something, Tooth kept looking at Jack and Mim, and North was almost completely oblivious.

Jack and Mim were the worst though. The two were next to each other, and trying so hard to act like things were normal, but they weren't.

Jackie didn't know Mim well enough to really tell, but Jack, she knew Jack well enough to know. The set of his shoulders, his hands in his hoodie pocket, the fact that he seemed to be refusing to look up from the floor.

"What on earth is up with those two?" Asked Taboo. "They look like someone just died!"

I doubt it's that dramatic. Replied Jackie, walking over. Samson was the first to notice.

"Ah, Jackie! You took your time. Are you sure I wasn't interrupting anything?"

"Sparring match, needed to get changed." Jackie said with a shrug. "So, how was it?"

"Not much different from now." Said Bunnymund with a shrug. "Tempro was waiting for us when we got out and lent Sandy Ancaerdem."

"What did you find?"

"Well, Colin is an, interestin' guy to say the least." Said Bunnymund.

"Oh stop beating shrub!" Cried North. "Just say already."

"That's 'beating around the bush' North." Said Jack, almost automatically, a trait that Mim seemed to pick up on as her head shot up.

"Is what I said."

Bunnymund just shook his head. "Anyway, Colin seems to only be able to control fire because he's nearly always angry, but it's not as good as other fire Descendants. And I wouldn't recommend lookin' 'im in the eye. He can change people's emotions through eye contact."

Jackie nodded, getting slightly annoyed that Jack and Mim seemed to be barely listening. This was important dammit!

"Any backstory, weakness?" Asked Jackie.

"He has a big thing against us. Thinks he's some kind of freak, and, sorry Mim, he blames you."

"Yay." Said Mim sarcastically, but even that was half hearted. Something was definitely wrong.

"And Jackie, he doesn't like you because you were the one who tried to teach him HOG's values. That's really all it is."

Jackie nodded again. "And I assume you won't say anything else on that because it disrupt time, things."

"Maybe." It was Bunnymund's turn to shrug.

"That is fine." Said Samson. "What about weaknesses?"

"He's allergic to peanuts."

"Great, we can throw peanut butter at him." Said Taboo sarcastically.

"There's got to be more, right?" Asked Toothiana.

Sandman formed the image of a hockey stick and Bunnymund nodded.

"Yeah, he's in the local hockey team, one match he lost control and nearly burnt the whole buildin' down." Bunnymund frowned. "It took a lot of cleanup, but the memory spell apparently doesn't work as well on a lot of people at once, so his own team started to avoid him."

Jackie nodded again, thinking. "So, he's HOG trained and plays hockey competitively. Chances are we've got a real tactician on our hands."

"But he's only one person." Countered Toothiana. "We've got at least eight heads to outthink him."

"Yeah." Now it was Jackie's turn to be a bit distracted. "But it'll only work if we're all thinking clearly." She was looking at the two love birds in the group, except they didn't look much like a happy couple.

"So, can I address the elephant in the room?" Jackie, not looking away from Jack and Mim. "Because what is the matter with you two?"

Toothiana winced as Jack and Mim looked at Jackie. "I-I don't know what you mean." Said Jack, looking anywhere except at Jackie and Mim.

"Come on. it's been less than a day and you two have gone from the loving couple to not looking at each other. I can't be the only one who's noticed this!?"

Jackie turned to the others in the room.

"It is kinda obvious mate." Admitted Bunny, while Taboo just growled at Jackie. Queen tactless strikes again, because Jack and Mim looked like they wanted to be anywhere else right about now.

"It's nothing, seriously." Insisted Mim, which is an excuse Jackie had also made too many times in her life. The Guardian was looking in her eyes like a deer in headlights.

"Really?"

"Jackie." Said Samson, cutting through the conversation. "Now is not the time."

"Why? We need everyone to be thinking clearly right now!" Jackie retaliated. "We can't afford any kind of baggage!"

"She's right." Calvin was there too, standing against the wall, nearly out of sight. Mim looked at Jack and he turned away. She looked back at Calvin and snapped. She launched herself at him but the older Guardians saw it coming, as her eyes had gone red. Sandy and Samson had ropes on her before she had gone maybe a foot. She was snarling and screaming, but this time she was in control.

"Cal when I get my hands on you!-"

"Mim calm down!" Jackie knew this wasn't an explosion but still. This was not something she had been expecting and was suddenly reeling from it.

"What did you do Cal! What did you tell him!" She was wrenching herself free. Jackie took a step back, not sure what to do.

Instead Bunny went over.

"Mim, I think he's had enough." He said calmly, which in turn helped Mim to calm down. She relaxed and took a step back, but kept glaring at Calvin.

"We are still waiting on Tracey." Samson reminded everyone, breaking the sudden silence and acting very calmly despite the situation. "I suggest we think on this information, instead of exploding at each other."

Jackie wasn't willing to let the matter rest, one of her oldest friends was in pain, and she couldn't stand that. However, she now knew that doing it front of everyone wasn't the way to go about it.

"Jack." She said quietly. "Come on."

"It's fine." Jack insisted.

"Your girlfriend with superpowers just tried to attack her brother. Humour me."

Seeing that Jackie wasn't going to the let this go, Jack sighed and followed her to the Records Room. More specifically to the tables in front of the Globe, which she leaned against.

"Jack, I've known you since I was fourteen. I know that's something's up." Said Jackie, her arms crossed as she regarded her ancestor, whose hands still hadn't left his pockets.

"Everything's fine." He insisted and Jackie snorted.

"I think we've already established that it isn't."

When Jack didn't respond Jackie's expression softened.

"Jack, I'm your friend. You don't need to hide anything from me." She said, echoing the words he used to say to her when she was younger.

"Of course you remembered me saying that."

"You're still stalling."

Jack seemed to wrestle with himself, before sighing. "Mim, Mim seems to be pulling herself away from me, and I don't know why."

"Have you asked her?"

"I can't ask her! I…" Jack's shoulders slumped.

"Words Snowman, they're there for a reason."

Jack instead pulled out a smoother, sleeker version of a SPARK, something Jackie had never seen before.

"I found this." Said Jack despondently, pressing a button and facing it towards her. On the screen unlike the blue hologram Jackie was used to, appeared Mim and Jacob Beck, sitting on a park bench, talking. At one point Mim looked upset, but Jacob almost immediately made her laugh again.

"I think... I think she's replaced me, with him."

Saying it outloud make the whole thing hit home, and Jack turned away, not able to watch, or look at Jackie.

"Where did you get that?"

"I think, Colin left it."

Jackie frowned, looking at the device which Jack was still gripping. "Okay, there's a few flaws with your theory about Mim."

"What?"

"Well, Jacob's mortal, Mim isn't. She'll outlive him, not much logical point in replacing you with him."

"Love isn't logical, you know that."

"True, second. That's just the Beck twins doing what they do best. Making light out of everything. I don't think they ever take anything seriously. Third." Jackie continued, seeing that the previous reasons hadn't worked. "This is from Colin, we've already had him down as a tactician, this might be an attempt to drive you and Mim apart, to cause chaos in the team. There's no sound, we don't know what they were saying."

"But what were they talking about?" Asked Jack. "Why would she go to him and not me?"

"There's only real way to find out. We ask Mim."

Jack's eyes widened. "No-!"

"Jack, we need everyone thinking clearly, without any prejudices or anything like that. If it is Colin's plan to drive you apart, wouldn't it be great to see his face when he see's that he's failed?"

There was a small smile on Jack's face as he pictured it. "Yeah."

"Okay, I'm going to get Mim."

Jack looked like he wanted to protest, then remembered the points that Jack had already brought up.

"Yeah, okay." He looked nervous.

"I'll be here if you want me to." Offered Jackie. "But this is something you two need to sort out."

Jack nodded, looking a little defeated. "Okay, thanks."

Jackie nodded and left to head back to the Main Cavern. She'd left Taboo with Mim, so hopefully if things didn't got well she had some extra man power. Or, tiger power, in this case.

Mim was still there thankfully, and looking a lot calmer now. Probably because Calvin was no longer in the room. She talking about something with Toothiana.

Jackie also noticed that Sandman was still around, and remembering what happened in Tokyo, quickly slipped him ten dollars before going over to the two female Guardians.

"Hey." said Jackie, leaning into the conversation. "Sorry to interrupt, but I can borrow Mim?"

Mim for some reason looked awkward, while Toothiana realised what Jackie was trying to do.

"It's okay. See you later Mim!"

Toothiana flew off and Mim turned to Jackie, looking her in the eyes. "Everything's fine."

"You haven't given me a chance to say anything!" Protested Jackie." And quit it with your eyes. Come on."

"Where to?" Asked Mim, not following.

"You'll see."

"Jackie…"

"It'll be worth it. Come on."

Mim sighed and followed Jackie, seeing that the Descendant wasn't about to give up any time soon.

Taboo followed along behind, and started growling a little as Mim slowed down when Jack came into view.

"Right." Said Jackie as the trio came to a stop. "You two need to talk, and I'm going to give you space if you want. Alright?"

Without waiting for a response Jackie left, making sure to remain in earshot, but out of sight. Opting to hide behind a row of shelves nearby.

There was silence for a bit until Jack said.

"Why were you with Jacob?!" It seemed that Jack had just decided to get it over with, although his voice sounded hurt.

"I was just asking him about, stuff. And how did you know?"

There was few minutes of silence as Jack presumably showed Mim the SPARK.

"Where did that come from?" Mim seemed genuinely curious, partly terrified and partly offended.

"I, found it."

"Where?"

"Just, around."

"Where?!"

"I… I think Colin left it."

"You can't trust him! Jacob and I were talking, nothing else!"

"What about in here? Why were you going through the blue files?"

Jackie frowned, leaning against the shelf, this was new, and definitely odd. If Mim had wanted to know anything about the Descendants of Jack Frost, she could have just asked her. Jack would have known where she was.

Mim didn't answer. She rolled her feet on the ground and froze up.

"Mim, please."

"I, I was actually looking for something about Jackie."

Jackie's eyes widened and she looked down in shock at Taboo, who had an identical expression. That's what this was about?!

"And you couldn't have just asked her, or me?"

"I, I just want to know why she's so keen about me and Calvin making up. That's what I was asking Jacob about. I didn't want to ask you because, your sister."

Jack's voice was hard. "You still should have asked her, or at least told me what you were doing. I could have told you!"

"...I'm sorry. I didn't want to bring up your sister. You hate it when I do!"

Jack seemed to sigh and suddenly called out. "Jackie! I know you're still there!"

Jackie slowly peeked around the shelves, feeling like her cover had just been blown. "Hi."

Jack looked pointedly at Mim, who looked like she wanted the ground to swallow her up.

"I just, wanted to know, why you seem so set on me and Calvin, burying the hatchet. And not burying it in each other."

Jackie stepped out from behind the shelf, and to Mim's surprise she didn't look angry or upset, she just looked a little sad.

"That's what all this was about?"

Mim nodded and Jackie sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"...My brother died." She said, looking at the floor. "He died when he was five, and I was seven. Up until that point and until I was fourteen, he'd been the only friend I'd had."

Jackie said this relatively calmly, completely different from the tearful delivery that Jack had heard over a decade ago. Time it seemed did help with the healing process.

"I'm sorry." Said Mim and Jackie shook her head.

"You wouldn't be if you knew what happened."

"Huh?"

Now was time for the most painful part, which was the main reason that Jackie wanted Mim and Calvin to patch things up.

"I was the one who killed him."

"What?" Mim didn't seem to be able to believe it.

"It was an accident. He was falling, and I thought I could catch him, I couldn't control my powers as well then. Instead of catching him I sent an icicle through his chest."

Jackie was still looking at the floor, arms folded. "He was dead within minutes."

Jackie looked up and straight at Mim, her expression hard. "That's why I want you and Calvin to make up. Because you're back from the dead, and that's brilliant, or it should be. And you're going to outlive Calvin now, do you really want him to go without you two having made up?"

Mim just stared at the Descendant.

"...You don't know what Calvin's like."

"No, I don't. But people can change. I'm just asking that you two try."

Jackie's face softened and she looked between Jack and Mim.

"Now that's over, how about you two head to the Mess Hall and get some ice cream. I've got paperwork to do."

"What's ice cream got to do with anything?" Asked Jack.

"Ice cream makes everything better in my opinion." Jackie shrugged and started walking away with Taboo at her heels. "See you later!"

Jack and Mim joined hands, all baggage lifting and they headed to the Mess Hall, relieved and ready for ice cream.


	24. Chapter 24

24-Hunt Down

For the first time since this whole thing started, Mim was content. Jack held her in his arms the way he used to with her leaning her head on his shoulder. He proved he could always make her laugh by emptying the sprinkle machine into her ice cream, making every bite a chorus of little crunches.

Jack had wanted to prank Jacob Beck with a fake jealous boyfriend act, but Mim had kissed him and shaken her head. That had dragged on too long already.

Now they sat in the Main Cavern, lounging together. Her outburst bred some curiosity in the group, but Mim looked them each in the eyes in turn and their emotions changed to ones she found more suitable. Jack laughed at their faces, changing from curious to blank to talking to one another and looked at Mim. On him her eyes turned a pulsing red, and he kissed her properly.

"Not fair, snowflake!" he protested. Closing his eyes when he kissed her had broken the spell.

"Too bad, my little blizzard." she had snuggled down for a nap when she felt another emotional presence, faint in the massive room. She wanted to ignore it and sleep in peace, next to Jack but a voice she could not politely ignore cut that possibility off.

"We have results."

"Tracey! Nice for you to climb in." North announced with jollity, not looking all that bothered as a young woman appeared from the shadows. As if he could announce things any other way.

"North it's 'drop in'" Jack corrected. North frowned but lightened a second later.

Mim flipped backwards off the couch they'd pulled in from a part of the Records Room with one hand, and moved to see the face of Tracey, which was new to her. She had been absent for her last appearance at head quarters.

Tracey looked to be roughly the same age as Jackie, but the pair didn't look much alike. Tracey had a lean, wolfish face, enhanced by slightly pointed ears, with grey eyes and russet red hair in a tight, low ponytail. A few wisps of hair had escaped from the ponytail though. She was in a dark jumper and scarf, with black trousers and boots. Down her left eye was a vertical scar, which looked like it had been inflicted by a claw.

"Nice to meet you," Mim said extending a hand, which was returned tentatively. Mim was having a hard time getting a read on her. Her emotions were shadowy, veiled in grey, but at the same time she still sensed hard determination and complete exhaustion.

"Long trip?" she asked. Tracey jumped at the small girl with the strong voice.

"You could say that." she remarked, looking at Mim with an odd interest, who in turn, couldn't help but notice the larger than usual canines that showed when Tracey spoke. Jackie started, looking up from the file she'd been reading over and remembered her courtesies.

"Tracey, this is Mimic, Guardian of Balance. Mim this is Tracey, Alpha of a pack of Lupine Descendants."

"Excellent. Have you found anything on Colin?" Mimic cut to the chase. Her quiet contentment had been terminated and now reality rushed in to meet her. She had a job to do and her family was involved. It had been personal for a long time coming.

"We do have a confirmed sighting on Lupine and maybe Colin. We saw them in Boston-" Jack and Mim and Jackie all shared meaningful looks,"-and we traced their scents all over the city, but we never saw them directly. Their scents were faint on the ground, but they were nowhere to be seen."

"Can you draw them on a map?" Bunny asked, "We may be able to triangulate a point they visit often."

"Sure." Tracey replied. The group relocated to one of the tables in the Records Room and Claire, who'd also been updating some paperwork, brought up a map of Boston. The Boston Branch brought an updated map every so often, as did every Descendant in a major city. Tracey set it down on a table and drew in big red lines where the two fugitives had been scented.

"How do we triangulate Bunny?" North was perplexed as he watched, "Seems as they everywhere."

"Maybe not." Tooth studied the map from overhead. Her amazing memory was in action as she looked. the corners and dead ends were all familiar, the round-a-bouts and buildings overhead were all familiar. But how?

"Hm." Jack hummed as he too looked at the map, from multiple angles.

"Aha!" Tooth exclaimed from her place in the air. "There is no position we should be looking for, it's all right here!." she gestured to the whole map.

"What do you mean?" Tracey seemed put off the by ever buzzing fairy.

"These aren't positions. They're streets and dead ends and they cut across buildings and they're-"

"Tunnels." Mim finished, "That's why their scents came from the ground but you could never see them."

"Well good thing for us." Jack said. He was busy freezing a corner of the paper as entertainment.

"How in the name of the moon is that good for us?" asked Samson, who had been sitting pensively in his wheelchair after curiosity had called him over.

"We've been in those tunnels before." Bunny was smiling now too. All the Guardians shared a grin as the Descendants looked on puzzled at the sudden grim humor on the immortal faces.

They all remembered that last time they had been down there. The police had been on their tails as their high school covers had been somewhat blown. No one thought they were immortals. Everyone just thought that they were kidnappers. It had been an interesting few months.

"So do you guys know your way around down there?" Tracey asked. The map she had drawn was a labyrinth of twists and turns.

"To some Celsius." North said. Jack did not even feel like telling him that the correct term was "to some degree". They needed to get that guy a dictionary of today tongue or something.

"But that place is crazy Sheila." Bunny added in. "The forefathers who built it put in booby traps, and if Colin is familiar with those tunnels, he may have added a few of his own or spiked the one's already there."

"So basically watch my step?" Jackie concluded.

Sandy nodded vigorously with a huge danger symbol above his head. Extremely so.

Debates sprung out everywhere was the team was assembled and the schematics were drawn. Jackie refused to stay behind, but Claire wanted to force her because she wasn't completely happy with Jackie's health condition. Jack and Mim argued for her to come along and Samson wanted to know if he and Toothiana were staying here.

"I've gone this far with it! I might as well keep going!" Jackie shouted over the mass of voices.

"Where is Taboo going to be?" Samson was trying to write everything down.

"-but if we follow this tunnel, then he'll be expec-"

"We can just g-"

"-then there we are and we're cornered!"

Sandy set off a million sandy fireworks in the room and the boom had everyone's hands clapped over their ears, and eyes shut tight in the blinding blast. Sandy didn't talk much, but he was an excellent listener. So he stood up on the table, and was still shorter than most of them, and laid down the law.

He had a set of fairy wings and we put them to the left. He had another smaller set and put them to the right. The wheelchair went to the right. A tiger also went to the right. The rest including bunny ears, a yin yang, two snowflakes and a christmas tree all went to the left. Then he himself jumped to the left.

"What about me?" Tracey asked. Sandy shrugged he put a wolf in the middle and shifted it to either side. Tracey was free to choose.

"I'm gonna stay here. I'm exhausted, I want steak and I don't feel like being skewered by some tripwire. Have fun." she plopped herself onto a nearby chair, greatly looking forward to the rare prospect of hot food.

"Not going back to the pack?" Asked Claire.

"Will in a bit, Davey's holding the fort somewhere in Organ Pipes National Park."

Taboo growled, annoyed. "How come I have stay behind?"

"Fire guy, remember?" Said Jackie. "We can't have you melting on us."

Taboo growled again, but settled down.

"Okay so we are all split up, now what?" Jack probed the group.

Tooth ruffled up her feathers. "I'm going to go assemble a squad of fairies."

Bunny followed her lead. "I'll get some egg golems to block the tunnel exits."

"Yetis may also be good helpers." North left via snowglobe and Bunny by tunnel.

"Is it weird that we don't have minions?" Mim broke the awkward silence as the rest of them stood there looking at each other.

"I don't know." Jackie said, "Seems like having them is a lot of work."

"Says the girl with a commanding rank." Jack bounced back.

Jackie just looked back at him, un-amused.


	25. Chapter 25

25-Let's get this Show on the Road!

"Jackie."

Jackie stopped halfway from getting up from the table, standing half up with one leg up comically.

Claire struggled not to smirk. "Stand up properly you look ridiculous."

"One day I'll get a smile out of you." Jackie said, standing up properly as Mim and Jack planned amongst themselves. "Yes?"

"First, I'd suggest full armour."

"Yeah, I was going to get that." Jackie responded. It was probably night by now in Boston, so going around in full armour wouldn't stick out quite so much.

"Second, do you have a radio earpiece?"

Jackie thought for a second. "Yeah, it's back at home though. Why?"

"The Guardians, for some reason, seem to know the tunnels, you don't. Take your earpiece and we can guide you from above."

"Pulling out the old radio?"

"Yes."

Jackie smirked slightly. The old radio looked like it hailed from World War Two, and it probably did. However it was so heavily enchanted that it could pick up any frequency a HOG Descendant was using, and if a microphone was hooked up to it then the person at that end could speak to any Descendant that was using a radio.

"Okay then. Time is of the essence. Taboo, job for you."

"Alright alright, I'll go get it." Grumbled Taboo, getting up from her spot and running out of the Records Room.

"And be careful." Added Claire. "I'm still not happy with that burn. The wounds on your sides have probably healed over enough by now, but that burn was quite severe."

"It'll be fine." Insisted Jackie. "I've fought with worse injuries."

"Yes, and pulled out the stitches and made the injuries worse in the process." Claire looked at Jackie. "My point is that you have a worrying lack of regard for your own health."

"Can you please lecture me when we don't have a rogue Descendant giving us trouble?"

Claire raised an eyebrow. "If you make that burn worse, or die. I will be the first to say that I told you so."

"Hilarious." Said Jackie in monotone, before turning to leave.

"Take care Jackie." Said Tracey, just before the Descendant of Frost left the room. "And, can I get a word with you when you get back?"

"Sure. What about?"

Tracey shook her head. "We'll discuss it when you get back."

"Okay." Jackie wasn't always sure what to make of the Descendant of Lupine. She was technically the one who knew her best, but they'd only met one more time than most of the other Heads, and even then that was a long time ago.

"See you in a minute." She said to Jack and Mim, before running to her quarters.

The armour was exactly where she'd left it, and she got about putting it on.

First was the chest and back plate, which swung apart when they were picked up and were held together by leather straps and buckles.

Next were the metal shorts, which weren't the most comfortable thing in the world and fit the most snugly. Jackie just thanked her lucky stars that she hadn't been born a boy, otherwise this might be very uncomfortable.

Next the leg guards and boots. The guards protected the back and front of her legs, with a plate over the kneecap and joined at the sides by straps and buckles. Meanwhile the boot were just simple boots made of metal that met the kneecap plate. The only difference was the thin, vertical indent along the soles, for Jackie's skating blades to form.

Next were the shoulder and arm guards, which followed the same principal as the leg guards. However, the arms had small indents in them as well, one halfway up each upper arm, and one just below each wrist. These were for Jackie's ice blades, so that they wouldn't interfere with the armour.

Next were the gloves, which looked like gauntlets, but were thinner, more flexible even though they were still made of metal, allowing for more dexterity. Almost all of the armour was like this. It was made of metal, but it was as light and flexible as leather armour, providing the same protection while maximising movement.

The final piece was the helmet, which again looked standard. However, instead of the visor being all metal with limited vision, the visor covered all of the face, excluding the mouth. The visor was curved and completely see through, maximising vision while being just as sturdy as the rest of the armour. At the mouth were tiny holes for breathing and speech, although the visor could be lifted for speech if necessary.

Jackie's helmet actually had interchangeable visors inside it. Should she ever lose or break her glasses in battle then it would be a simple swap of visors and she could see again. It made her helmet slightly more bulky than anyone else's, but that was the only obvious difference.

Jackie fiddled with the ever pesky straps under her chin and stood in front of the mirror in the wardrobe door. The whole ensemble was pale blue and on the chest plate on the left was HOG's symbol, while on the right was an eight sided snowflake intertwined with a capital 'H'.

Jackie stopped messing around with the straps and just looked at her reflection, then let out a content sigh. It had been a while since she'd needed this, and naturally every time she'd either been injured or come close to death, but she still felt relaxed, at ease in this armour. Like she could take on the world.

"Davies, you're going soft." She muttered to herself, her voice sounding slightly echoey, despite the fact her visor was up. "As you said, time is of the essence. The sooner this mess is over, the better."

She turned on her heel and jogged out, the armour barely clunking as she moved. And even better? Even if she did come across Colin down there, his fire wouldn't be as bad. As was standard with HOG armour, the metal was enchanted to keep the wearer's body temperature normal, no matter the environment, within reason. Jackie would still not be able to handle a desert in this very well.

The Main Cavern was occupied with a small group of Yetis, swarms of Mini Fairies and a couple of large egg golems.

"Flipping heck." Jackie said, coming alongside Jack and Mim by the door to the Records Room. "I feel a little outclassed."

Jack had seen her in armour before, but for Mim this was a surprise.

"You guys don't do things by halves do you?"

"Can't afford to." Said Jackie with a shrug. "We don't have the advantage of immortality."

Mim herself was in armour. Black and white of course, and it seemed to be made of scales. Jackie noticed that Mim still bared a lot of skin. The scaled armor went down to her ribs, leaving lower midriff exposed. She still wore regular shorts, but had a flowing half-skirt of scaled armor. The upper armor had arm guards and she had knee guards. Mim demonstrated that the lower leg guards could extend out into shoes.

"North's idea for when I can't feel enough to fly." she had said.

"Why the breeziness?" Jackie scoffed playfully. Mim smiled.

"I need to be able to mimitate and the less armor I have to keep while doing so, the better. That and I need to be able to MOVE." she emphasized by backbending and flipping backwards on her hands,

"Gymnastics?"

"Ballet."

"Show off…" Jack whistled from behind her. She kicked at him high but he dodged and caught her ankle, yanking her forward. Her hands slammed into his chest as she fell and Jack laughed as the Guardian of Balance was off-balance.

Taboo wove her way through the small crowd and placed a small black box in Jackie's hand.

"There you go. Now I might as well go and doze." Said the ice tiger irritably before loping to the Council Chamber.

"Someone's in a bad mood." Commented Jack.

"She's just annoyed that she won't get to go down with us." Said Jackie, placing the box over her ear. She tapped it and said.

"Testing, testing. Claire can you hear me?"

"I can hear you loud and clear Jackie." Claire's voice came through the earpiece. "Samson and I are in the Council Chamber and are ready when you are."

"Good." Said Jackie, noticing the Guardians were gathering in the centre of their assembled squads. She jogged over to join them, standing just in front of a Yeti.

"Someone's come prepared." Commented Bunnymund as he spotted Jackie.

"Immortality, I don't have it." Jackie shrugged. "What's the game plan?"

North took charge, pulling out a copy of the map of Boston that had been drawn on. "Yeti's and egg golems will block exits. Phil, Dmitri, you are together. Everyone else pair up with an egg golem."

"Mini Fairies will be scouting ahead in groups." Said Toothiana. "And be acting as an information network."

"As for us." Continued North. "We are also going in pairs. Mim and Jack, you're together."

Jackie nodded, seeing the two of them grin at each other. That was expected.

"Jackie, you will go with Sandy."

Jackie blinked in surprise and looked at the sandmaster, who gave her thumbs up. She smiled at him in return. That wasn't as bad as it could be, she would still prefer Taboo, but for the ice tiger's own safety she was sitting out.

"Bunny? Any preferences?" North asked and Bunnymund shrugged.

"I'll be alright on me own mate."

North nodded. "Tooth, you and I are together."

Toothiana accepted this and North turned to Jackie. "Is there any protocol on getting to Boston?"

The question took Jackie by surprise. "Um, I'd say go up in groups and split off when we get up there."

Jackie paused as Claire's voice came through her earpiece. "The Boston Branch is also waiting for you, should you need them."

"Boston Branch is also up there if we need them." Seeing Jack's sudden mischievous grin Jackie added. "And don't antagonise the Beck twins, it's not worth it Jack."

Jack deflated and Toothiana asked. "So, who's in the Boston Branch."

Jackie didn't even need to think, it was one of the Branches that answered to her.

"James and Jacob Beck, Descendants of Jack Frost. Richard Dawn, Descendant of Bunnymund and Mitchell Saunders, Descendant of Sandman. Mitchell is technically the leader, but the Branch answers to me."

"You'd better go up first to meet them." Mused North and Jackie nodded.

"Sure. That fine with you Sandman?"

Sandman nodded, then made a 'smaller' motion with his hands.

"What do you want me to make smaller?"

Sandman shook his head and made the squiggles of writing above someone's head, then crossed it out and shortened the writing to one word.

"Basically." Stepped in Bunnymund. "Ya don't have ta call us by our full names. It's just weird for us."

"Oh." Jackie had nothing to say to that. She hadn't even considered that, it was just habit for her.

"Okay. So, are you okay with that plan? Sandy." The nickname sounded odd coming from her mouth.

Sandy nodded and gave her a thumbs up.

North also smiled and started organising everyone else. The rest of the Guardians were to come out next, followed by the Mini Fairies to dart ahead. Last were the Yetis and egg golems.

With that sorted Sandman moved towards the Departure Cavern and Jackie jogged to catch up.

There wasn't exactly conversation in the Boston Tunnel, as Jackie felt too awkward to say anything. She didn't know Sandman as well as Jack, and it would take a while for the nickname thing to stick.

At the top were the four members of the Boston Branch, the only member none of the Guardians had met being Mitchell. He had the classic blonde hair and short stature of all Descendants of Sandman, he stood at about five foot. He was roughly in his forties and looked on with sharp grey eyes as Jackie and Sandman left the Tunnel.

"Head Davies." He greeted saluting, before bowing to Sandman, quickly followed by Richard. The Beck twins just laughed at how mortified Jackie and Sandman looked.

"A-at ease." Jackie said. "And please don't do that again."

"As you wish sir."

The Beck twins snickered and both Jackie and Mitchell looked at the them, both with a look telling them to shut up, if for different reasons.

"Right, to business." Said Jackie. "The Guardians are on their way, flanked by Mini Fairies, Yetis and egg golems. North has the map and you can give us the quickest directions to those tunnel entrances from here."

"As you wish sir. But um...what tunnels are these?"

"You mean you don't know?" Jackie said.

"We have ours but none other." James lilted out.

"The Guardians seem to know more about it than we do. We'll wait for them to get here."

Jackie stifled a cringe as Richard stepped forward, half expecting him to salute or something equally embarrassing.

"How's Calvin?" He asked, and Jackie relaxed a bit.

"Fine last I checked." Jackie decided not to mention the homicidal sister.

"He hasn't been answering my calls when I try to check on him." Richard looked so downhearted that Jackie couldn't help but feel sorry for him. She'd met him a few times before and heard James and Jacob talk about him. He was one of those people who would try and get along with anyone, which was why he had been selected to befriend Calvin. But now it was clear that it had been pre-planned, Calvin must think that the friendship had been fake, when that hadn't been the case at all.

"Come down later and I'll grab him for you." Said Jackie.

"Thank you."

The rest of the Guardians were out next and the Branch was quickly informed on the historic tunnels by Mim, who had discovered them in the first place. She explained that the entrances were at Revolutionary War sites and famous Boston landmarks. She handed out directions and codes to unlock the doors and passageways. The Branch pocketed the information for later records.

"Thanks, although..." Said James.

"We don't think you'll need much help." Finished Jacob.

"Well, yeah, they know the tunnels." Said Jackie.

"Yeah, but you know why, right?" Asked James.

"No." Replied Jackie.

The pair looked at each other and grinned. "You mean you don't know?" They asked in creepy unison. Jackie swore they did that just to freak everyone out.

"No, I don't know." Jackie insisted and the twins grins grew larger.

"Well, a few years ago, we noticed six people transfer a couple of years below us, while we were in high school." Said James.

"Six people, who looked a lot like the Guardians." Added Jacob, and now all the Guardians were listening.

"What's that got to do with anything?" Asked Jackie. "We're Descendants for goodness sake, that doesn't prove anything."

If anything their grins grew wider.

"What?!"

"You mean you guys noticed?" Asked Mim, and Jackie's head shot towards her.

"That wasn't actually you, was it?" Asked Jackie, and in unison all six Guardians nodded.

Jackie's mouth fell open for a second before asking. "...Why?"

"Man in Moon wanted us to connect more with teenagers." Explained North, and the Beck twins burst out laughing.

"You certainly did that!" Cried James, still laughing.

"And the police as well!" Added Jacob.

"What!?"

James placed a hand on Jackie's arm, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. "We'll tell you later boss."

"But, you two knew it was us?" Asked Toothiana.

"Yeah! We're Descendants, we'd know you guys anywhere." Said Jacob.

"We thought we'd better not get involved, but we got a good laugh out of it." Said James.

"Best year ever." They said in unison.

"Please tell me you at least told Alfred." Said Jackie, Alfred had been the Head before her.

"Of course we did!" Said James.

"He found it as funny as we did."

"Okay." Jackie called halt to the proceedings. "As weird and hilarious as this is, what has it got to do with the tunnels?"

"We had to escape down the tunnels at one point." Said Jack. "It's a long story."

"Hey, we did try to keep the police off you." Said James.

"But we couldn't go too far without letting you guys know that we were on to you." Finished Jacob.

"As fascinating as this conversation has been." Said Mitchell irritably. "Haven't you got somewhere to be, Head Davies?"

"Ah, yes." Said Jackie, getting her head back in the game. "Shall we move?"

"Let's roll!" Cried Jack and the group split off, each Guardian pair being trailed by an egg golem and Yeti to block the entrance they were going to go down.

"This is weird." Muttered Jackie as they walked through the city. She got a few odd looks, but that was just for her armour, no one could see Sandman or their entourage.

Sandman tilted his head to the side and formed a question mark.

"I'm walking out in the open, in full armour, with you, a Yeti and an egg golem." Explained Jackie. "And people aren't even reacting because I bet they think that I'm cosplaying something."

Sandman chuckled at that idea.

Jackie was still uneasy at this. There weren't many people out at this time, and most probably won't remember the next day or in a week, but she still couldn't relax. Couple that with the fact that she couldn't hear, see or feel Taboo and she was feeling downright nervous.

Sandman picked up on it and tapped her on the leg. She looked down to see what he wanted, and he gave her thumbs up and a smile.

"Thanks, Sandy."

They reached their tunnel entrance and Jackie tapped her earpiece one last time.

"Claire, Samson, can you still hear me?"

"We're still here." Said Claire. "Where are you?"

"Just in front of the tunnel entrance. We're about to go in." She looked around the area, there wasn't actually an obvious entrance. "Hopefully."

"Okay, we've got you. Ready when you are."

Jackie gave a thumbs up to Sandman, and they started looking for a way to enter their tunnel.


	26. Chapter 26

26-Underground Under Fire

Mim and Jack were at the entrance of Faneuil Hall. Getting into the building was easy, but once they were in, Jack looked around without a clue. The large room had two levels. One was the lower, filled with lines of chairs in front a small stage that had the busted heads of who he assumed were famous people.

The upper level was less of a level and more of a mezzanine or palisade. It wound around the interior wall like a ring, with ornate balconies supported by decorated columns.

"So where do we go in, all I remember is coming out." Jack inquired to Mim who had fairy winged herself up to the massive painting that hung above the stage. She was examining the strokes made by some great American painter.

The artwork depicted a grand assembly of some sorts, with men filling the chairs in the painting, in the room that was Faneuil Hall. One man stood at the forefront, lightened next to a podium, or perhaps it was a desk.

"The clue from inside the tunnel, as far as I remember said 'Look for the way out, the man knows who knows." she said, eyes looking upward as if she tried to look into her head.

"These guys had nothing better to do that be cryptic." Jack grumbled.

"These 'guys' are heroes and they saved your frozen tail from the police." Mim called back down to Jack.

"Always taking their side." Jack complained back, this time sarcastically.

"'Look for the way out, the man knows who knows.'" Mim repeated. Jack joined her in the air, the painting just feet in front of them. The first part was confusing but Mim was sure the man mentioned was the man standing in the middle. He looked important. So he knows, who knows the way out. What were they supposed to do, read a dead man's mind?

"Look for the way out." Jack mumbled and he stared at the all important man. He stared into the man's eyes. "Look. Hey Mim the man is looking for us!" Jack called out. She was looking at the other man in the shadows.

Jack pointed at the man, Senator Hayne of the US Union in around 1845, and followed his line of sight, dragging a long line to...a boy.

The blond child sat in the front of the painting, quarter turned away from the viewer, but he had been painted with his head turned so it appeared as if he was looking out of the painting at them.

"The boy knows the way in." Mim confirmed their thoughts. Getting up close to the effigy of the child, she looked at his eyes and face, and hands. He was holding a book, amassed with papers.

"Find that book." she and Jack began to comb the Hall. There were many books that had been read, and written in, in the Hall's history, but there was one book on a pedestal in the back. Jack let Mim open it since she seemed almost reverent of it. She had always been such a bookworm. He hugged her as she gingerly flipped the pages with the very tips of her fingers. The book looked old and withering, but in one of the pages was a miniature version of the painting, tucked in, on a ripped piece of paper.

The page contained a map of the hall, with labelled doors. One door was labelled that wasn't actually there. It was on the stage, behind the head of one of the famous men. Jack was up on the stage in a flash, and he found that the head had a hair thin seam in the back, that ran not only down the head, but down the pedestal too.

Tracing the seam with his finger, the frost from his finger revealed an even thinner seam, concealed by the swirls in the wood. That section of wood came out and inside the wood pedestal there was a small lever, barely a finger in length.

With a series of clicks and scrapes, a trap door in the stage opened. The scraping had been a large block of wood being pulled to the side. Once they went down, the block slid back under the door, to eliminate the tell tale hollow sound.

Once down there, they see the metal plate that had the clue they had used embossed into it. A descendant of Paul Revere had, if Revere himself hadn't, made the metal plates that appeared all over the tunnels. Cryptic clues and hints, arrows that directed those in the tunnel, to places whose names had been hidden somewhere else on the plate.

This tunnel was from the American Civil War, newer than some from the 1770's but still rickety, with the wood soft and moist, or brittle dry, reinforced with metal that had rusted over, or tarnished with age.

It was dark so Mim turned into a sort of human firefly, her eyes, and hands glowing, casting shadows.

"You have no idea how creepy you look like that." Jack said, blinking as her bright eyes gazed upon him. With her providing the illumination, they moved to explore the fifth they had been assigned. A few lefts and a right provided no interest whatsoever, until Jack missed the tripwire in the shadows.

Jackie and Sandy were outside since their tunnel entrance was in the Boston Commons.

It is the oldest public park in America and it had been established in 1634. The older nature of the landmark meant that the technology involved had been far less complex than the levers and buttons and strings in the other tunnel areas.

It still took a heck of a lot of work though. The original owner of the Commons had been a certain William Blaxton, but his name had been modernized, and often misspelled, as Blackstone.

"You mean we have to search for a black rock?" Jackie looked down at the little golden man, clearly excited in all her sarcastic goodness. "Well, that'll be easy."

Sandman smiled up at her and synthesized a small golden shovel which he comically slung over his shoulder. Keeping close to the glowing Sandy, they looked for the stone in the fading light. Jackie prayed that they found it before it got too dark or else finding a black stone in the night would be a fruitless adventure.

Straightening up from her search she plopped down and kicked at the dirt. Her foot struck a stone with a clang as it hit her metal boot. Pulling her foot back, she looked at the menacing mineral. The part she had hit was just peeking up from the surface of the soil. It was black, and shiny, like obsidian.

"Hey Sandm-Sandy!" she called. Looking around she noticed the painfully appraising looks of others on the common. They went back to their business as Sandy came over and they waited until most people had gone. With a sand-brush, Sandy brushed off the rock. Jackie had thought it was fist sized, but time and sediment had veritably buried the massive slab of stone.

Moving the slab which took both sand and ice, they found a shaft that descended into black depths unknown. Sandy formed ropes and Jackie iced the rock back into place.

Tied together, the two lowered into the tunnel system. This was one of the oldest parts of the system and some of the creaks in the infrastructure made Jackie want to claw her way back to the surface. It reminded her in some ways a little too much of Lupine's den, and of the times when she had to go into the lairs of the Descendants of Pitch. The darkness was pressing in on all sides and the creaks were making her wonder about the stability of the place. She was already afraid of two natural elements, she didn't need to be afraid of a third!

"He certainly chose a suitable place to creep us out." Jackie muttered dryly, feeling her heart beginning to beat faster.

Once they hit the bottom, they were greeted with the feel of mud beneath their feet. It squelched and Sandman made sand-boots which left glowing specks wherever he tread. It did help Jackie to calm down a bit, the dark wasn't quite so bad.

The metal plate here announced the entrance as "Commonplace." Which was a clever use of homonyms.

"Hey can I borrow some Dreamsand?" Jackie asked quietly. Something about this place commanded an inside voice and Jackie was not about to challenge that.

Sandy nodded vigorously and conjured up a small sphere. He tried to hand it to her but she held up a finger and worked some ice into a handheld prism. Kneeling down, she had Sandy insert the dreamsand into the hollow center, which immediately refracted the glow into a million rainbows all over the walls.

Sandy clapped his hands in glee at the lights that shimmered on the dank walls. Jackie smiled. For an ancient being, he seemed happy like a child. No wonder he was a Guardian.

Jackie tapped her earpiece. "Claire, we're in."

"Good to...ar."

Jackie frowned.

"Claire? Are you still there?"

"...ackie? ...'re brea….up."

There was the squeal of feedback in Jackie's ear and she gasped in pain, fumbling to get it out. She succeeded and stared at the black box in her hand, now a little more worried. As far as she was aware, HOG earpieces never did that.

She swallowed her unease. "Never mind." She said, tucking the earpiece under her armour and into her pocket. "Let's go."

Sandy nodded in agreement.

They began to navigate. The tunnels twisted and turned in everything but straight lines.

"Did these people have something against following the streets ahead?" Jackie tried to begin a conversation. Sandman's silence was darn intimidating despite his huggable nature.

Sandy signed a cow walking, leaving a trail. Then a speeding clock and a new path on top of the cow's.

"Ummm… the cow made the roads?" Jackie tried. How did the Guardians get good at this?

Sandy shook his head and redid the animated sand. Try again.

"Cow paths were original roads…" she began, Sandy smiled and motioned for her to keep going. "And then the modern straight roads, came later." Sandy sighed in relief as his message had gone through.

"So these did follow roads, two centuries ago." she said. Looking at Sandy who gave her a thumbs up, she grinned. This wasn't so hard. Conversation with Sandman was less auditory and more visual, with which she was rewarded by walking into a low hanging beam. Sandy laughed silently.

But that creaking beam released a trap.

Phil and Dmitri were tromping through a tunnel that had been opened at the Bunker Hill Monument. Dmitri had to stand on Phil's shoulders to reach the trigger stone. Given the location, the pair were lucky they were invisible to the majority of the population, it would have been quite a sight otherwise.

Both carried flashlights from the workshop. Phil garbled something to Dmitri who shrugged his shoulders as they walked. Each carried a yeti weapon, that had been kept in their closets for a long time. Sure they used them at North's gym when keeping up their skills, but to be honest, yetis didn't need to fight all that much anymore.

Phil carried the Abominable Mood Swing, that which only he could wield as the chief of the yeti tribe, which he had become after the leaving of the honorable Yaloo, who had now gone to Man in the Moon as the Moon Yeti who served Man in Moon.

Dmitri held a Dinner Knife, which when one finds out what it really is, it is far from an eating utensil. Dinner Knife is a type of yeti weapon that is a massive dagger, approximately with a blade the size of a man's calf.

As the two walked, Phil thought he sensed a trap and swung out the Mood Swing, but all it did was make Dmitri slip and fall on his yeti behind and let out a guttural "oof."

Dmitri looked up sheepishly at Phil who gave him a long look which appeared even longer with his moustache.

Bunny was entering through the USS Constitution. He had to climb onto the ship's deck from the ropes that moored it. His clue was a two parter. The ship only held the location of his tunnel entrance. He hopped below deck, and the swaying of the ship's belly made him nauseous. He truly was a creature of the ground he told himself. This was against nature he told himself. But Bunnymund found that this argument never worked well since he himself and the Guardians all defied nature.

He looked at his clue for some idea of the plaque that mentioned where he might find a tunnel entrance.

The interior of the ship had been cleared save for piles of ropes and a few crates for aesthetic effect. Moving these things to the side, he felt along the floor of the hold, tapping his big feet on the boards and wall until it sounded as if he had struck something. He looked around but saw nothing useful so with utmost regret, he used his teeth to pry up the board. Spitting chips of paint and splinters from his mouth he saw a small metal placard mounted in a compartment in the wall.

"Look down."

That was it?!

Look down! Bunny tried to see if anything was under the plaque but the thing was securely fastened. He continued to search in the recommended downward manner until a wave sent him into a pile of ropes. He decided he did not like ships, or boats, or dinghies, or anything of the like.

Look down?

Bunny's stomach lurched in revelation. Down meant down. He sighed to himself, and pulled out something from his bandoleer. It looked like a bronze metal disc with a few gears and leather added for good measure. He activated the disc, which grew into a large swimming suit. Although, swimming suit was perhaps the wrong description, it was more like a Bunnymund sized and shaped miniature submarine made of leather and overlapping bronze plates, with a dome to cover his tail and a larger see through dome for his head.

It was an updated version of his old one, as it had leaked through the holes for his ears and tail, so he'd decided to forgo holes for those and instead went for an extendable tube that had a floatation device at the end to provide air. It took a few seconds to get in, and once in he dove off the side of the ship into the waters beside the Charlestown Navy Yard.

He allowed the suit to sink all the way to the bottom of the bay, and started walking, feeling oddly weightless in the underwater environment. He wasn't fond of it, but it was better than being wet. He could see a shed in the murk and made his way towards it, once close he could see a small tunnel that was under the shed. He followed it into the air filled shed, pulled down the tube to coil and had the contraption shrink down to a small disc again. However the air was stale and choking so he rushed into the tunnel that seemed to be ventilated by some sort of miniature tunnel system that led to the surface.

Creeping along on all fours the mud was cold and wet. Bunny had gone out of his way to avoid being wet, so this was particularly irritating.

"Blimey." he mumbled aloud, as he moved along. As he pulled his foot out of a particularly rough mud patch, he began to scan for traps, only then realizing he was in one.

Tooth and North were quietly entering the Trinity church in Copley Square. Organ music could be heard ringing through the sanctuary and the pews stood like great sentinels, in straight rows facing the altar and the cross.

Seven great stained glass windows filtered the setting sun into a glittering piece of art that seemed to breath as the rays swilled and swayed through the passing clouds.

Under each window was a gold colored plate engraved with the figures of many men and women, each plate depicting something different.

Under those were words, and excerpts from the Bible. North pulled out the clue Mim had given him and read it aloud, his voice uncomfortably loud. He was glad few could hear him.

"The Door dwells where it says."

The pair searched the sanctuary, North low and Tooth high. Anything related to the clue seemed content to keep itself hidden and so the two Guardians looked and looked still. North sat in the first row of pews and cast his eyes about.

He had always loved riddles and Ombric had never grown tired of posing new ones to him, but these American forefathers seemed to be outsmarting him. This was something Nikolas St. North would not tolerate! The last rays of sun settled on the words under the windows.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among…

Dwelt...dwells…

North rolled the words off his tongue lazily. Tooth landed beside him.

"North what are you saying? she asked.

"Look Toothie, there on the wall, says dwelt." he pointed with his beefy hand.

"North you're a genius! Tooth squeaked, then covered her mouth as it echoed as shrill as ever through the church.

Flying to the words she looked at them. The word flesh and dwelt stuck out to her. Flesh? Now that was silly...but.

She knew her biblical history as she had seen it many children's fond memories, so she knew the Word being Flesh was Jesus. She touched the D in dwelt and a small compartment opened. It was empty though. Flying at crazy speeds, she found a stained glass depicting the Savior. She looked at it a short while before touching the hand that He extended downward. The glass popped free. She looked at the glass hand in her own small one and rushing, but not fast enough to make her drop the hand, back to North who was exploring the purpose of the compartment she placed the "flesh" of the "Flesh" into the compartment.

The tender weight of the glass pressed the compartment down, and opened the wall beneath the words. North had to crawl in but Tooth fit easily and they scrambled into the tunnels. It was dark, big surprise, and so North lit a flashlight. The tunnels was crawl space for a few meters but it opened up to a main tunnel, with a marker.

The marker pronounced it "Not Olde North"

Santa got a good laugh from the name, but he knew that it meant it wasn't the Old North Church, which was also an important landmark, which probably had a tunnel too.

After stretching from the cramped crawl, he and Tooth walked, and flew, into the earthen corridor.


	27. Chapter 27

**27-Radio Silence and Backup Plans**

"Jackie? Jackie are you still there?!"

All Claire got was the sound of static through her headphones.

She let out an irritated noise and took off the headphones, placing them on the table.

"What has happened?" Asked Samson from his seat next to her.

"Jackie's not answering." Said Claire, trying to keep the worry out of her voice, but failing.

"Her earpiece failed?" Asked Tracey, still eating. Naturally, she had the appetite of a wolf.

"It shouldn't have. As I understand it her Branch's Descendant of North built it. It shouldn't break."

Samson frowned and looked under the table, where Taboo had been dozing. Although Claire would never admit it, she was wary of the ice tiger, so it would be Samson's job to wake her up.

He was just glad that he had already lost the use of his legs.

"Taboo."

She didn't stir.

"Taboo, wake up!"

Taboo made a rumbling noise in her throat, but otherwise didn't move.

"Jackie might be in trouble. Wake up!"

Taboo's head shot up so fast that it hit the table with a thud, but thankfully not a crack.

Down in the tunnels, Jackie winced and rubbed her head as she felt a small bloom of dull pain spring up there.

Wincing and growling, Taboo stepped out from under the table.

"Can you get in contact with Jackie?" Asked Samson, and Taboo nodded, then growled. How on earth was she going to tell them what Jackie wanted them to know?

"I don't know what you plan to get out of her." Said Tracey. "Only Jackie and immortals can hear her, right?"

Samson looked a little sheepish. "We thought that, you, might…"

"I can't speak tiger." Said Tracey matter-of-factly.

"Then, we might be down a Head." Said Claire.

"There's no need to be pessimistic." Replied Samson. "She has the most field experience of all of us, and she's with the Guardians."

"They did mention something about traps." Said Tracey.

"I don't think that's helping." Said Claire.

Tracey shrugged. "I'm just telling you how it is."

Claire tapped her fingers against the table. "The paranoid part of me wants to get the others and form a squad to go after them."

"That… may not be a bad idea." Mused Samson. "Having a backup group. It is unlikely the Guardians and Jackie will fail, but just in case."

"Let's get Alexander and Jason down here." Said Claire. Taboo growled at the mention of Jason, but didn't do anything else, other than make Claire jump.

Ten minutes later the red and green chairs were occupied, and after Claire and Samson had explained everything, were now discussing who to go in this squad.

"Sorry, my pack isn't going down there." Said Tracey. "In Lupine's eye we might as well be traitors, we'll get ripped apart on sight."

"But, not all of your pack are Descendants of Lupine." Countered Jason.

"But they don't have their senses. They'll still be at the mercy of these traps."

"So, I should contact my lot." Said Alexander.

"I might have someone as well." Said Samson. "Not all of the hyper aware people are Descendants of Bunnymund."

"Yes, you can stop bragging now." Said Alexander, irritated.

"I just find it amusing that the usually creative group has one who is a wildlife ranger."

"Samson…"

"Fine, I will stop."

"Boston Branch would be good as well." Said Jason. "They know the area and history."

"That Branch has two Descendants of Jack Frost." Said Claire. "And Colin uses fire."

"They'll be in armour and no doubt working together. If their pranks are anything to go by, they'll be fine."

"So, we're decided then?" Asked Alexander. "Samson's guy, Boston Branch, and anyone I can grab from the Descendants of Bunnymund?"

"Sounds like a plan. Let's call them."

It didn't take long for all of them to assemble in the Main Cavern. The only Descendants of Bunnymund available were the Osbourne clan, one of the few lines in the Descendants of Bunnymund where all of them were Descendants. Although, if Jackie were here she would have mixed feelings about. Taboo certainly did. One of her Branch members, Billy, was an Osbourne, and they got along like a house on fire, they were pranking partners.

The rest of them, not so much.

Osbourne Senior, or David Osbourne Billy's dad, looked a lot like Billy. Same dark blonde hair and brown eyes, although dulled and grey with age. However the elder was more serious, and the almost typical disapproving father when it came to Billy, who was the only one in his generation not to have geo or flora kinesis, just the heightened senses, speed and agility.

Jackie and Taboo had never met Billy's three siblings, but from the way they were bickering, it seemed they got on only slightly better than Calvin and Mim.

The next group, which stood slightly away from the bickering family, was the Boston Branch. Then, just away from both groups, was Samson's guy, or girl.

A woman just slightly older than Jackie with long, blonde, messy hair currently hidden by her pale yellow armour. If Bunnymund had been around he'd have recognised her, she was the one from the sphere recordings.

Taboo had met her, so went over to greet her and Billy before standing with the other Heads on a small ridge in front of the Council Chamber.

"You have been called here as a backup group." Said Jason, getting straight to the point. "Head Davies and the Guardians have gone into a series of tunnels beneath Boston, and we have recently lost radio contact. Taboo is still in contact with Jackie, and if things go wrong, you are to go after them."

"We've still got the clues to the tunnel entrances." Said Mitchell, causing everyone in front of him to turn and look. "If you need them."

"We will follow their scent." Said David after a small pause. "But thank you."

"I'll take a clue." Said the Descendant of Sandman, and Mitchell passed it to her.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" He asked.

"I'll be fine on my own, thanks." She said, holding the clue tightly.

"Sure? Safety in numbers."

"It'll be fine." The Descendant waved off the concern.

"At the moment we are just waiting." Said Claire. "So you may relax, but do not leave this Cavern unless you have to."

The group sort of dispersed and Taboo growled to herself, half listening to Jackie's thoughts. They were faint and not aimed at her, but she could feel the unease and slight panic. She'd already encountered one trap, so she should be alright against the others.

That didn't really settle Taboo's nerves as she lay down on the ridge, her eyes lazily scanning the assembled group. These guys were no doubt good, and she could trust Billy at least to do a good job, the others she had her prejudices about.

She snarled a little at the nearest Descendant of Bunnymund, who jumped out of their skin, much to Taboo and Billy's amusement.

Since all they could do was wait, then it was all Taboo could really do.

Before the Heads could disappear into the Council Chamber, the lone Descendant of Sandman ran to catch up.

"Samson, sir!" She called and he stopped, spinning his chair to face her.

"Holly, what is the matter?" He asked, not unkindly.

Holly looked uncertain. "Just, well, why am I here?"

"What do you mean?" Samson knew what she meant, but just wanted her to explain why she was so uneasy.

"Well, you've got the Boston Branch, that's makes sense. The Osbournes are always good in a fight, then there's me. I'm a Scribe! I can't fight!"

"I do not see why you are so concerned, your technique is good."

"Technique isn't a level battle head! If we do go, who knows what we'll find down there."

"You are here not because of you battle skill, but skills you've picked up elsewhere." Countered Samson. "Because of your job, you notice things that take other people a while to spot, that will be essential for dealing with the traps. Which is also why I suggest you don't go in alone."

Holly's shoulders slumped. "Do I have to work with someone?"

"Preferably. I would suggest Mitchell or the Beck Brothers, they will be in need of someone to spot the traps."

"...I'll think about it."

"Good." Samson smiled. "You will be fine. We might be here for a while, so I suggest you meditate."

"Okay." Holly shrugged and went over to one of the cavern walls, out of the way.

Meanwhile one of Billy's siblings approached him.

"Say, Jackie's in your Branch, isn't she?" He asked. Billy's older brother looked more like their mother, dark, curly hair and green eyes.

"Yeah." Said Billy, wondering where this was going. "What's to you?"

"I'm just wondering, you know, 'cause dad went to your Branch a few years ago."

Billy smirked at that memory. That hadn't gone done well for his dad. He managed to annoy Jackie so much he almost got frozen.

"I'm guessing it didn't go well for dad."

"Nope. Jackie doesn't like him all that much."

"I can see that. Dad prefers to be in control, and from what I've heard so does Jackie."

"More she does things her own way."

"What, like you?"

Billy scowled. "Haha Vincent."

"Whoa, let's not start arguing." Vincent defended. "Believe it or not I don't actually like arguing with you."

"Is there anything you like?"

"Well, you face was always funny when we pulled you into practice."

"Literally." Billy practically growled. There was a disadvantage to having people in your family with flora kinesis and a house with wooden floorboards.

"But seriously though. You're usually more laid back than the rest of us. How you managed that I don't know."

"Me neither, maybe if dad could get off my back."

"You know does that because he's worried."

"Odd way of showing it."

"Just because you're happy playing video games for the rest of your life doesn't mean he is."

"I'm 38! Can he just get a hint and butt out!"

"Alright alright." Vincent held out his hands in an appeasing gesture. "I know dad can get a bit overbearing, but he's what, 80, now? Maybe you two should try and patch things up before, you know."

Billy snorted. "He'll probably last until his hundreds."

"But, he might not." Countered Vincent.

Billy sighed, Jackie's old arguments with him over his family coming back into his mind. "Fine, just, not right now."

"Don't want to make things worse before we have to watch each other's backs?"

"Pretty much."

"Ah, makes sense." Vincent rocked back and forth on his heels. "So, how's Sophia? How come you two haven't gotten round to actually tying the knot yet?"

As Billy started talking about his girlfriend, Richard noticed that someone was in the doorway to the Sleeping Quarters. He knew that Jackie said that she would grab Calvin for them to talk, but he was right there.

After a second he started to run over. Calvin saw him coming and turned to go back in, but Richard stomped his foot and blocked Calvin's retreat with a wall of earth.

"Cal!"

Unable to leave, Calvin turned to face the Descendant of Bunnymund.

"What?" He asked, giving Richard a hard look.

Richard took a deep breath when he reached his friend.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing. That wasn't the smoothest of exits."

"Why do you care?!" Calvin asked angrily. "It's not as if you were actually my friend! You were just there to keep an eye on me!"

"I do care, because you are my friend!" Richard protested.

"Don't try pulling that Richard, I'm not stupid!"

Richard finally scowled. "Really? Then you should know that I'm not that good at acting. I'm still worried about you, and I still want to be your friend. I'm sorry I lied to you, but I lie to everyone!"

Calvin blinked at the sudden outburst. It seemed that it was true what they say, never push the calm people too much.

"...Seriously?"

Richard nodded, calming down. "Really. And, I am sorry, I wish I could have told you, but you'd never have believed me."

"Nah, it's fine, I get it." Calvin sighed. "It's just, this world is crazy."

Richard thought about it. "I suppose it is. I'm just too used to it."

"How does your head not explode?"

"It's just how it's always been for me." Richard shrugged. "I've been living this way for as long as I can remember."

"You kept a secret like that for this long?!"

"Hey, I can keep a few secrets!"

"Oh yeah? What about when you mentioned something I said behind someone's back right in their face?"

"I was drunk, and so were you! You can't even remember who it was about!"

The two were starting to laugh.

"Glad to see a friendly face around." Said Calvin, "Nearly everyone else either seems to either be indifferent or just hate me. I never thought I'd be the freak."

"Everyone's a bit stressed. And beside, you are a freak." Said Richard, smiling. "Even though I'm only here because something's going down."

"Oh… Still time to talk?"

"Sure."


	28. Chapter 28

**28-Oh My!**

Bunny pulled at his right leg with all his might, and wrenched it free, but by the time it was above the mass of watery sand, the other leg was sunken in up to his knee and hardly moveable. He knew struggling would not help at all, but in the dark he didn't know what was solid ground and what was not. As he worked to keep his hands above the pit, his legs became glued in.

"Ahh! C'mon ya blighter, remember yer quicksand rules!" he yelled at himself.

The sand had reached his waist and he could no longer move them. He twisted on his ribs to see if he could make it back the way he came, but shadows obscured the entrance or exit, he wasn't sure, in the commotion he wasn't positive which way he'd come and where he was going.

It was at his stomach now. The mud was chilling and pressed in on his gut like he was being swallowed by the earth. It was displeasing, ironic for a creature that could create tunnels at will.

Jackie had long since stuffed the rotten earpiece into her pocket, tired of hearing it buzz in her head, or hum in her fingers. That beam she had hit had triggered two cage doors to descend on either side of her and Sandman.

She was kind of embarrassed that she hadn't seen the ridges in the ceiling that might've given warning to the falling gates.

Now she stood back to back with the Dream Giver as they contemplated a way out.

"Any ideas?" she asked respectfully. She had a few of her own, but as the Guardian, she guessed he ought to be in charge, or leading in some way,

Sandy made a saw above his head and tried to saw against the old steel bars. The sand scraped but didn't cut. It simply wasn't solid enough. Jackie tried to do one made of ice but it wasn't sharp enough and it sent out a rattling that sent her spine shaking.

Neither of their skills was working in splitting the metal and Jackie got so frustrated that she began to shake the ancient bars in hope they'd break loose. When that didn't work she thumped her fists against the bars, which worked about as well.

"There has to be a way out." she vented as she tried the corners the ceiling and all around.

Sandy worked with various tool made of sand and clangs and clicks sounded out as he worked. It clearly was not going well as the noises became louder and more frantic. Sandy was small and could almost fit out but unless he decided to be short and skinny, he was stuck.

Phil and Dmitri were having fairy issues as groups would come up and deliver reports, while some would come back scared and crying and other hid in their fur. Both took out their weapons and advanced, wondering why the little flying flittery tooth collectors, who braved storm and sky, were scared.

They heard some sort of rumbling as the fairies gave them horrified directions.

The fairies tried to convince the two yetis not to go but Phil had insisted on getting to the bottom of whatever this was and the fairies hid more and more behind Dmitri until he had a veritable swarm at his back, buzzing with their tiny wings.

Dmitri's flashlight beam was shaking as his hands shook. Dmitri had not done much field work, and was generally very sensitive, so all the suspense might've been getting to him.

"Fgujum deghee?" Phil garbled back. Everything alright?

"Fgujay deghee." Dmitri responded he was okay. But he dropped his flashlight and hastily picked it up as they walked and he made nervous conversation.

Soon they walked down a long thin hall, and as they neared the middle they found the fairies fright. The floor had turned to a bed or fire. It must have been one of Colin's spiked traps. As they turned to retreat and find another way around, they were blocked off by the floor which had fallen away to another bed of fire. Now Phil, Dmitri and the fairies were islanded in the middle in a space about 10 feet long and 6 feet wide.

Dmitri held his hand in the air over the walk of heat and yanked it back blowing on it, jumping up and down. The heat rose and the air was sweltering, no fairy that wanted to keep her feathers was getting through.

Jack's tripwire had activated spears that went clean through the corridor in both ways, jamming into the opposite wall. Jack was plastered to a wall, a spear under his elbow, his right ear, and between his legs. Mim was on the ground, hands and knees and a barbed spear cut just under her stomach and over her neck. Jack's staff had slid to outside the trap when he had flinched at the motion of the spears.

"You impaled?" she rotated her head slightly to peer at Jack.

"No. You?"

"Me neither. Just a bit at a loss for where to go. I can't see the spears behind me so I don't wanna move, in case I stumble into one." her arms bent slightly and they trembled from holding still for so long.

"I can try to extricate myself, but I don't know how to move out."

All the spears had barbs on their shafts like thorns on the stem of a rose.

Both their breaths came in short bursts as they held until they could figure a way out...without ending up a shish kebab.

North and Tooth on the other hand, just kept plodding along, nothing had impeded their journey as of yet and they were having a lively conversation on what to give European, and some American children on December 6th on Saint Nikolas Day.

"I understand chocolate is a holiday tradition, but can it be sugar free?" Tooth had been pressing the topic of candy gifts for three tunnels now.

"Children like the regular chocolate and would be weird to switch all of sudden." North had been trying to placate her requests for two tunnels now.

"Can it at least be reduced sugar?"

North gave her a look.

"They get so excited to get to bed, that they forget to brush and in one night, their teeth begin to rot in their heads!" the words made her become frenzied at the thought, of the children's teeth being damaged.

"Toothie, you worry too much!" North chastised gently. They turned a corner to see Lupine loping down a side hall. Both snapped to attention and looked at each other for a brief, but meaningful moment. In unison they began to follow at a discreet distance.

Bunny was now up to his chest. His arms had remained free, but he was still sinking and he could see nothing to grab onto. His only hope was that he stopped sinking and he could try to swim out, because, yes one can swim in quicksand.

"Oh...Oh no...not good." he yelped as the suffocating muck touched his armpits and showed no signs of relenting.

Ever so slowly he kept dropping, and dropping that he seemed to be lost in the slow motion of it all.

He didn't even notice he had stopped sinking until 15 minutes after had stopped, because he had been sinking so slowly.

"Alright, let's do this." he said to himself as he began to press, as quickly as he dared through the watery pit.

His arms would have been shaking as he swam, except for the stiffening sand. The faster he moved, the more the sand would force him down. So the fast Pooka, a race known for speed and agility, was moving like a snail, encased in the ground.

Jackie and Sandy had continued to try to saw, hack, file, push, pull, smash, slam and bombard their way out but nothing seemed to the trick. The metal bars remained at immovable as before and Jackie was wondering if it was worth the risk calling for help.

The sound would surely echo, but she might attract Colin instead, and she had nowhere to run, and his fire was even more terrifying in closed quarters. Even more worrying was that Lupine might also hear, and she and Sandman were like fish in barrel.

"So your sand, and my ice don't work, what now?" she posed the Sandman with the ever important question. The two of them were sitting on the dirt floor, Jackie with her back and head leaned up against the wall, and Sandy rocking slightly from side to side.

He put his hand to his chin in thought, and stayed that way for a great many minutes, or so it felt like that to Jackie, but he did move from his rumination to flash some symbols to her.

One was clearly a representation of dreamsand, and the other a snowflake, but the concept escaped her.

"Sorry. Not getting it." she shrugged.

He pointed to them both as he melded them together into a saw. The gears in Jackie's head cranked and turned as the lightbulb clicked on.

"I can freeze your sand?" she concluded in inspiration. Sandy nodded triumphant.

They wasted no time. Sandy had the saw made without delay, and Jackie put on layer upon layer of frost, as well as carefully lacing ice through the middle, to make sure the blade didn't snap. Then working together, they went to work on the gate, pleased to finally see flakes of metal flying up around them.

Jack looked at Mim carefully. She had one spear behind her neck, one under stomach, one a foot or so over her ankles and a bunch around her, but not too near. Her laid out what he saw to her.

"You got that? Nod or something." he said. He didn't want to make any mistakes.

"Nodding is out of the question." she responded. He laughed, only to receive a small cut from the spear next to his ear.

He guided her through the jungle-gym of barbed spears and pointed shafts. It was a slow going process, making sure that she didn't overshoot and hit something else.

First, he had her duck her head and slip it back between the spear over her neck and the one under her stomach, but he stopped her before she could sit on her ankles, as another spear sliced through the space.

"Now get up to your knee." she made to move.

"Other knee!" he hissed as her leg almost met a particularly long barb. His heart beat erratically as she stood and twisted and then dove over a spear shaft, which nearly gave him a heart attack, and rolled to a stop just before another spear.

There were only four between her and the end of the spear blockade. She slid on her stomach under one, and then pushed off the wall to get around the second. The last four split the air into thirds before her. Taking a deep breath, she pushed off, and jumped horizontally between the final barring shafts.

Jack let a out a long held breath.

"Alright my blizzard. Your turn." she said.

Phil and Dmitri, as well as fairies galore all stood on their island in a sea of fire. Fire, and cages and spears oh my!


	29. Chapter 29

29-Send in the Troops!

Claire was not a nervous woman, she was calm, and collected. However she could not stop herself from tapping her fingers against the table that dominated the Council Chamber.

Alexander looked at her with an irritated expression, the tapping undoubtedly being being more annoying due to his sensitive hearing.

"Claire, that's getting a little annoying." Said Jason, opposite her. "I know you're worried, but Jackie is very capable in these kinds of situations, as are the Guardians."

"One day you should say that to her face." Said Alexander. "Maybe that'll get you two to stop arguing so much."

"I am just, concerned." Defended Claire. "We have had no radio contact since Jackie went into those Tunnels."

"She's probably fine-" Started Jason, but Claire interrupted.

"And what if she isn't? I agree that she's capable, but we don't know what's down there. If both Lupine and Colin are down there, she may well be in a lot of trouble."

"The Guardians-"

"The Guardians are not infallible." Claire snapped. "I know we have always assumed otherwise, but let's face it, they are not."

Alexander started to laugh as Jason's face started to go red. "Ya gotta admit, she has a point."

"They are immortals-" Started Jason, and now it was Samson who interrupted.

"Yes, but they were not always. They were people, like you, like me. That is why we exist. It seems that we have all forgotten this. They were not infallible then and they are not infallible now."

"So, is this just one big debate disguising whether or not you should send your backup team." Said Tracey, tipping her chair back slightly.

"You'll fall over doing that." Said Alexander automatically, the school teacher in him not able to stand seeing that.

Tracey raised an eyebrow. "I'll survive." Said the human wolf shapeshifter, who had never been to school in her life. "My point still stands."

"If we send them down then how do we know that their radios won't go out as well?" Asked Jason. "It'll be like sending someone down a well to rescue someone, but instead of lowering them down we chuck them in."

"Yes, but let's face it, Jackie is a magnet for trouble." Said Claire.

Alexander, who had just gotten his laughter under control, starting chuckling again. "You can say that again. How many times has she managed to almost to almost die?"

"I do not think that is helping." Said Samson.

"I said 'almost', she is yet to actually die."

"Still not helping." Said Claire, who had started tapping again.

"Still…" Mused Jason. "Those tunnels, from the sounds of it, extend throughout Boston, a few more people down there couldn't hurt."

"You were quick to change your tune." Noted Alexander.

"I've just been thinking about it." Jason defended himself. "We might not have radio contact, but if we send them down in pairs then success is more likely."

"Ten Descendants, five entrances, that works." Said Samson. "Although, pairs, might be difficult."

"Why, is your guy antisocial?" Asked Alexander a little mockingly.

"Perhaps, and we all know the Osbournes get along well." Said Samson sarcastically.

"Alright you two." Said Jason. "We can let them sort that out."

"So, we are actually sending them then?" Asked Alexander.

"We might as well." Jason shrugged. "Any objections?"

There was an universal nod of approval and Alexander went out to go and let the bored Descendants outside know what was going on.

Holly opened her eyes from meditating and watched the rest of the cavern as Alexander talked. It seemed that they were going after Jackie and the Guardians.

She wasn't entirely sure how she felt about that, she'd never actually done any field work before.

The other nine Descendants started pairing up. She knew Billy from her talks with Jackie, so she watched him pair up with the guy he'd been talking to for a while. The Beck twins went together, naturally, while Richard went with Mitchell. The oldest Osbourne, no doubt the father, went with his eldest son, a man in his fifties with dark hair and brown eyes. That left her and the last Osbourne, a woman in her early thirties with dark hair and green eyes. Obviously one of the youngest.

The two looked at each other across the cavern and shrugged. Looks like they'd gotten lumped together.

Holly got up and wandered over to her partner.

"Hey, I'm Holly."

"Sam." Said the Descendant of Bunnymund. "So, which clue did you pick up earlier?"

Holly hadn't actually looked, so unfolded the bit of paper.

"...The USS Constitution. So, a ship, I guess." Being British, Holly was more used to HMS than USS.

"Great." Groaned Sam.

"Can we swap?" Holly asked. "I get seasick."

Sam peered around the rest of the cavern. "I don't think anyone else is going to take it. There's either a Descendant of Bunnymund or a Descendant of Jack Frost in every group. We're stuck with it."

"Yay."

Billy and his partner got Boston Commons, the Beck twins got Faneuil Hall, which would be closed at this time of night, but the prankster twins were already cooking up a scheme to sneak in. Richard and Mitchell got Trinity Church and the two oldest Osbournes got Bunker Hill Monument.

With locations in mind and radios in hand the pairs set off, with directions from the Boston Branch for those who needed them. Sam insisted that they didn't, but Holly just felt safer with written directions as well.

Eventually the pair reached the ship and after getting past the egg golem guard, they looked at it for a few seconds. It seemed to be standard old time ship, wooden, three masts, that sort of thing. It could easily have been transported here through time, that's how well kept it appeared to be from this distance.

"I'm going to assume that this was important, somehow." Said Holly. "I mean, they've done the same thing with the HMS Victory in Portsmouth."

"I guess." Sam shrugged. "I don't know much about American history."

"Nope, me neither."

The two boarded the ship carefully, trying not to clank too much in their armour as Sam climbed the mooring ropes and Holly used a series of air-borne trampolines to get up. Their armour wasn't as light as Jackie's, because it wasn't for aerial combat, and as such made a little more noise. The other differences lay in the colour, Sam's was green while Holly's was yellow, and in the symbols. Instead of snowflakes there was an egg patterned with rings and a five pointed star respectively.

Sam's nose quickly picked up Bunnymund's scent and ignored how uneasy she felt not being on the ground as she followed it. She found the clue that Bunnymund had dug up and the pair read it out loud.

"Look down."

Holly did so, and only saw more wood.

"It's still just the ship." she said while Sam's nose was still quivering. Holly wasn't having the easiest time as the boat rocked, feeling steadily more and more nauseous. It wasn't helped when she almost got thrown into a pile of ropes.

"Bunnymund moved from here…" Sam followed the new trail dutifully, reaching the upper deck and the side of the ship.

"He jumped off." Said Sam, before ducking down, joining Holly as she realised how exposed they were.

"So, we've got to jump into the harbour?" Asked Holly, crouching on the deck with her back against the side. "In full armour?"

"Yeah, sounds like fun." There was not a trace of sarcasm in Sam's voice.

"We'll drown!"

"We'll be fine." Insisted Sam. "Our armour isn't like historical armour. Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Back on dry land."

"Oh come on! Did I get a Scribe for a partner?"

"Yes. Yes you did."

Sam groaned. "You've got to be joking." She shook her head. "Well, you're here now, but you've got to pull your own weight."

"I'm still a serving Descendant! I can and will pull my own weight."

"We'll soon see." Without wasting anymore time Sam vaulted over the side and fell into the water with a splash.

There was silence for a couple of seconds until.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Water's lovely!"

Freezing cold no doubt. Holly thought, peering over the side. Sam was happily treading water, with her helmet looking like half the harbour had taken refuge in it.

Holly covered her clue and radio in a protective layer of sand and made to jump, then stopped.

"Come on, what are you waiting for?" Sam called up, annoyed that her partner had seemed to have frozen in place.

"I-it's a long way down."

"Of course it is! It's fine." Sam sighed as Holly still dithered. "I can't believe I got paired with a scaredy cat."

"I'm not scared!"

"Prove it! Jump! We're wasting time!"

Holly took a deep breath, clamped her mouth shut, and jumped over the side.

She slammed into the water and initially sank. Her eyes closed, she swam upwards, quickly breaking the surface and letting the water that had gone through the holes in her helmet flow back out.

"S-s-so c-c-cold." She said, teeth chattering as she trode water.

"You'll get over it." Said Sam, although her teeth were starting to chatter. "We're going to have to look underneath the surface.

Holly nodded, despite the monologue beginning in her head about how she couldn't open her eyes underwater. She was going to try for goodness sake!

The pair dived back down and Holly managed to crack her eyes open in the murk. The fact it was night and the water was muddy did not make it easy to see, but she caught sight of a shed in the water before having to come back up for air.

Sam joined her a second later.

"I reckon what we're looking in for is in the that shed." She gasped. "Although, I don't know if you'll make it."

"What makes you think that?"

"Descendant of Bunnymund, I naturally have slightly larger lungs. You, don't."

Holly frowned, but couldn't deny it, she ran out of air halfway down.

"We're supposed to do this in pairs. I'm not staying up here. Can't you go down and pull me down with a rope of Dreamsand?"

Sam considered it. "Not a bad idea. I'll have to keep going down to find the entrance and if there's any air in the shed. Wait here."

Holly waited as Sam dove back down again and again, finding the entrance to the shed.

"It's underneath the shed and goes into it." Explained Sam. "The air's stale, but breathable."

"Okay then, let's go."

Holly formed a rope and handed it to Sam, who took it and dove back down.

The Descendant of Bunnymund made it into the inside of the shed, coughing in the stale air. She then took the rope and gave it a tug to let Holly know she was down, and once Holly had given a tug in return, Sam started pulling as quickly as she could.

Holly burst through the gap, coughing and spluttering. Her lungs had nearly given out in the passage.

"Thanks." She gasped, coughing in the stale air.

"You're welcome." Replied Sam, neither of them really paying attention to how soaked they were.

They quickly moved into the actual tunnel and began breathing easy again, until Holly shot her arm out and stopped Sam in her tracks. Her eyes scanned the ground in the light of her Dreamsand, pulling out her earpiece as it started crackling. She figured that the water must have gotten to it.

"What?" Hissed Sam.

"Quicksand."

"How can you tell?" Sam scanned the ground, and did note that it looked a little muddy.

"Someone's already gotten through it." Said Holly, her eyes scanning the ground, easily seeing where Bunnymund had struggled and eventually swam through the sand. "Quicksand is usually smooth, but this has been disturbed."

Sam frowned and sniffed the air, quickly getting Bunnymund's scent. She tapped the ground and felt it, almost seeing the quicksand and how far down it went.

"You're right. Nice work. How did you even see that?"

"I look at the ground a lot."

"That's, a little depressing."

"It might have just saved our necks." Countered Holly.

Sam glanced at her, and frowned. In the light of the Dreamsand, Holly's eyes appeared to be gold instead of the usual more brownish colour.

"What?" Asked Holly, a little unnerved by how Sam was staring at her.

"Erm, nothing. Right, the sand's not too deep. I could probably get through, but you…"

"I'm too short aren't I?" Guessed Holly, who stood a grand total of five foot two inches.

"If you stand on my shoulders, then-"

"Don't worry about it."

Sam looked over to see that Holly was standing on a floating platform of glowing sand.

"...That works too."

"Coming?"

"Sure."

Holly pulled Sam up onto the platform and they floated over the quicksand, heading deeper into the tunnel after Bunnymund.

At Trinity Church Richard and Mitchell couldn't help but look at each other in disbelief. The door was still open.

Yeah, it was guarded by an egg golem at the door, but, seriously?

"Well, this is easy." Said Richard, ducking down to enter the passage.

"You sure there's nothing down there to be worried about?" Asked Mitchell cautiously.

"North and Toothiana came through here. Other than that, no."

Mitchell frowned, but didn't protest as he followed the youngest member of the Boston Branch through the passage and into the tunnel. Richard kept a nose and eye out for traps, then winced as the radio failed in his ear.

Mitchell had the same problem and ripped it out of his ear. "Damn thing." He muttered and shoved it in his pocket beneath his armour.

"It is, worrying." Said Richard uncertainly, looking back at his Branch leader.

"I don't think we'll really need them. Let's just keep going."

James and Jacob were pressed against a wall either side of a window outside Faneuil Hall, their visors down and frosted to hide their faces. Hopefully when this was done they could get someone to wipe the CCTV footage, but that wasn't an excuse to be careless.

In unison the pair tapped the wall and let frost spread towards the window. Instead of covering it, the frost went through the cracks between the pane and the wall. The twins faces were creased in concentration, their fingers dancing as they moved and thickened the frost to ice in order to unlock the window from the inside.

There was a click and the pair relaxed and moved to open the window and slipped in. They stood pressed to the window, scanning the hall for cameras and possible motion sensors.

They froze over the cameras and once they were sure they were okay, paused for a high five before splitting up to search for the tunnel entrance.

James found himself on the stage, and found frost left over by Jack. It had melted a bit, but another tap revealed what Jack had found.

"Jacob." James hissed, and his brother jumped over the mezzanine and raced over.

"Yeah?" Jacob scanned the pedestal and grinned. "Nice."

They pulled the lever and a trapdoor opened in the stage floor. Without hesitation the pair went down and followed the tunnel.

They both flinched as their radios failed in the gloom, and Jacob flicked on a torch to see where they were going.

James looked at his earpiece uneasily in his hand. "Come on. We might as well keep going." He said, before marching forward with his brother in the lead.

They kept going until they reached the corridor filled with barbed spears. Some were stuck in the walls, and some were sticking out of the floor, with some having come off the ceiling, others with the points facing the ceiling.

"Okay." Said James, peering through the mess of barbs. "Please tell me no one went this way?"

Jacob shone his torch onto the ground, showing the patches of frost that he had been following led through the spears.

"Jack Frost or Jackie did."

James sighed. "Who wants to go first?"

"You can go. Oldest after all."

James paused and then mock bowed.

"We must always make way for the youth."

"Age before beauty." Responded Jacob.

The two were grinning and chuckling at the banter.

"We're identical!" Laughed James, before turning back to the spears.

"... I'll go." He decided, and carefully manouvered his way through the forest of barbs. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, since he was in armour, although it was still nerve wracking.

James got through and gave instructions for Jacob to get through, and after a few minutes they were both on the other side.

"You okay?" Asked James.

"Yeah, you?"

"Fine."

Jacob nodded and started walking, his torch shining on the ground.

Billy and Vincent stood by the statue of Blackstone, their noses alert. Billy had quickly picked up Jackie's scent and started pacing, worried for his Branch mate.

"Billy, calm down." Said Vincent. "This is Jackie Davies, I bet you she's fine."

Billy stopped pacing, but then started tapped his foot against the ground. "I know, she just has a habit of getting into a lot of trouble."

"Well, you're not going to help her by standin' around like a lemon. Her and the Sandman's scent is strongest over here."

Billy moved over to where Vincent was pointing, and saw the black slab Jackie and Sandman had pulled up earlier. The grass surrounding it was either damp from the ice that Jackie had used to seal the slab back into place, or still iced over.

Billy sighed. "Okay, we're going to need a rope."

Vincent raised an eyebrow and held out his arms, flexing his fingers beneath his gauntlets. The grass beneath him rippled and twisted, and tree roots extended towards him.

The grass gripped the rock and tree roots pushed up from underneath, lifting the slab of black rock and holding it there. The ice cracked and gave way, sending small showers of it down into the hole.

"...Or we could do it that way." Billy wasn't all that impressed, he'd grown up with Vincent as his big brother, he'd seen it all before.

The pair peered down the hole, and after spending a second looking into pitch black, Billy flicked on a torch and shone it down.

"That's a long way down." Said Billy. "If we fell we'd break something."

"Well, I can take care of that."

"Of course you can." Billy sighed, watching as Vincent got the plant roots to stick out of the tunnel wall to act as hand and foot holds.

"After you." Said Vincent, motioning with his hands.

Billy had a cutting remark on his tongue, but remembered the conversation earlier, so went down the tunnel without a word.

Vincent blinked, surprised at the lack of resistance, and went down after him.

Both of them cried out as their radio failed, and quickly took them out of their ears and stuffed them under their armour.

"Well, that went well." Said Billy, hanging from one hand, his foot just above the next tree root below him.

"Just keep climbing." Said Vincent, shaking his head to try and clear the earache.

They reached the bottom and started walking through the meandering tunnels. Jackie and Sandman's scent remained constant, and they quickly reached two sets of iron bars that stretched across the tunnel, blocking it off..

Billy's eyes widened as he took it in.

"What the…?"

The bars were bent and split in places, with specks of golden sand and shaves of ice were scattered on the ground and on the bars. There was a human sized gap in both sides of the bars, presumably in case who ever had attacked them needed to go back down this tunnel.

"Well, looks like I told you so." Said Vincent, not smelling any blood. "Jackie seems to be fine."

Billy sniffed the area. "It is recent." He mused, then smirked. "She always was a badass."

Vincent chuckled. "Come on then." He stepped through the damaged bars, and Billy followed him.

Adam, the oldest Osbourne child, did have to wonder why his dad hadn't retired. Especially since he had insisted on being the one going up to push the trigger stone on the monument.

Seriously, he was eighty three, why hadn't he retired yet?

"You okay up there dad?" He called. He was also glad that due to the late hour no one could see them, for an organisation that stressed secrecy, this wasn't particularly secretive.

"Fine!" David called down irritably from his pillar of earth. "I just got up here, let me actually find the trigger stone."

Adam sighed and waited for his father to finish doing what he needed to do. The entrance rumbled open again and David lowered the earth pillar.

"See, have some faith in your old man." Said David, before going straight into the tunnel, not even flinching as his earpiece failed.

"Stubborn old coot." Muttered Adam before following him, opting to remove his earpiece before he heard the squeal of static.

"I heard that."

The father and son duo made their way unheeded through the tunnels, following the scents of the two Yetis for guidance.

After a while they started hearing Yeti grunts, fairy twitters and the crackling of flames.

"Do we want to know?" Asked Adam.

"If they need help, then we will give it to them." Said David.

"You're eighty three! Give it a rest!"

"You're not exactly young yourself!" Cried David.

"Still younger than you!"

"Enough Adam! Let's move." David took charge and ran forward, his senses more in the earth around him rather than seeing what was in front of him.

He felt the heat on his face and felt the two gaps in the earth and came to stop, holding out his arm to stop Adam from falling into the fire.

"What the heck?" Adam just stared at the scene in front of him. Two Yetis, one with a brown top half fading into white and the other with a grey top half fading into white. Both were swarmed by Mini Fairies and were standing on essentially an island flanked by fire.

"Stop standing around looking gormless and sort out the other side!" Cried David, flinging his arms out and pushing them to side, making the earth in the side of the tunnel extend out and smother the flames while keeping the same stability in the tunnel walls.

Adam didn't watch, instead copying his father's movements and doing the same thing on the other side of the Yetis.

The Yetis babbled something and David nodded.

"Yeah yeah, I don't know what you're saying."

"Dad!" Adam hissed.

"What? It's true."

The two Yetis looked at each other and sighed, then babbled to each other for a bit as the Mini Fairies flew off in different directions.

"So, now what?" Adam asked no in particular. The Yetis picked up the question and answered, pointing to themselves and down the tunnel away from them.

"Okay, you're going down there." He guessed, not really knowing much about Yeti behaviour, one of them seemed to look a bit pale. "Well, there's nowhere else to go, so I guess we'll follow you."

"That's a leap of logic." Said David. "We could easily turn back."

"Are we going to turn back?" Adam asked, his arms folded. David snorted in response.

"Of course not. Come on."

David strode past the two Yetis, and Adam just shook his head and jogged to catch up with him. The two Yetis behind them shrugged at each other again and just decided to follow them.


	30. Chapter 30

30-Tunnel's End

Colin paced in a chamber under the Paul Revere House. It was a horrible habit he had picked up somewhere in his childhood, he hissed at the thought. His hair smelled of smoke from his fists, since they tended to steam when he got mad, which was not a seldom occurrence.

He wondered if Lupine was successful. The mangy wolf had his skills, despite the smell. He played with a bit of pyro as he waited, not as patient as before.

Jackie shook her arm, dislodging yet more metal dust. Who knew cutting through metal was so messy?

Sandman seemed to be quite content with the whole thing, just walking along next to her as the ice/Dreamsand prism refracted rainbows everywhere.

Sandman suddenly paused, making Jackie stop in her tracks as well as he held up a finger. She stopped and listened as the soft sound of footsteps could be heard from the the end of their current tunnel, which seemed to be a T junction.

Jackie pulled a puzzled face and faced the Sandman, who shrugged and crept closer to the junction ahead. Jackie followed, wincing every time her armour made a noise. This was not designed for stealth.

The two pressed themselves to the side of the wall as the footsteps came closer, and after a muted countdown, Jackie pulled her visor down and they jumped out, weapons at the ready.

Jack and Mim gave a cry of panic and jumped back, Jack pointing his staff at them and Mim's bracelets turning into throwing knives.

The quartet froze, looking at each other.

"Jack? Mim?" Breathed Jackie, not wanting to talk too loudly down here.

"What was that about?" Hissed Mim. "You nearly gave us a heart attack!"

"What do mean, 'we gave you a heart attack'? We heard your footsteps all the way down there! You could have been anyone!" Jackie pulled her visor back up so she could be heard properly.

The group relaxed, until a new voice made themselves known.

"Knew if we ran fast enough we'd catch up."

Mim prepared to throw her knife at the newcomer, but Jackie recognised the voice.

"Wait!" She turned behind her, to see a very familiar Descendant behind her.

"Billy? What are you doing down here?" Jackie asked as someone else came running up from behind, panting.

"Bloody hell, Billy! When were you so fast?"

Jackie nodded politely to the other Descendant of Bunnymund. "Vincent."

"Head Davies." Vincent panted. "I'd salute, just give me a second." He doubled over to get his breath back.

"Don't worry about it." Jackie turned back to Billy, who had a grin on his face.

"Good to see you're okay kiddo."

Jackie gave a long suffering sigh.

"I'm never going to get rid of that nickname, am I?"

"Nope!" Billy said, popping the 'p'.

"As lovely as this is." Interrupted Mim. "Who are you, and why are you down here?"

"Billy Osbourne." Said Billy, "And that's my brother." He said, pointing behind him. "Head's got twitchy and sent a bunch of us down 'ere."

"Wow, that's something I thought I'd never see." Said Jackie. Meanwhile Jack had his head tilted, looking at Billy.

"You're in the Burgess Branch, aren't you?"

"Yep. Good ta meet 'cha properly at last."

"Likewise."

"Mimic, call me Mim." she introduced herself and extended a hand. Billy took it.

"They keep getting younger don't they." looking down on the petite, petite female.

"Billy!" Hissed Jackie.

"What? Just an observation."

Vincent's ears pricked up and he moved around the group to look down the tunnel Jack and Mim had just gone down.

"We might have company." He said.

Sandman stepped in, forming an image of a large hall, the silhouette of a person and a question mark.

"Er, what?" Asked Billy, utterly lost.

"Who went down the Faneuil Hall after Jack and Mim did?" Jackie translated, feeling kinda proud when Sandman nodded. She was getting better at this.

Billy's grin got wider. "The Beck twins."

"If you three try anything…" Jackie left it there as Billy shone the flashlight down the tunnel, revealing the two Descendants of Jack Frost making their way down.

"Hey." They said, jogging over. "We're not late for the party are we?" Asked James.

Vincent sniffed the area. "Doubt it, I can still smell an unknown Descendant down here."

"Colin." Mim growled.

"Whoever he is, his trail leads that way." Vincent pointed down a tunnel that none of them had gone down.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Asked Jack, started to walk.

"We need a plan of some kind." Said Vincent. "It makes no sense to go charging in, guns blazing."

"What's wrong with that approach?" Jackie asked and Billy snickered.

"Yeah, we all know how much you love that tactic."

He was rewarded by a jab to the ribs, which he responded in kind.

"Stop it you two." Growled Vincent irritably. "We can plan here."

The eight began to talk in hushed tones, getting a plan together.

North and Tooth still had Lupine in their sights, and were continuing to creep along behind his wagging tail. Not only did Lupine seem to have a sense of direction in these tunnels, but he was going down a path none of them had been assigned to.

North gave hand signals to stop every now and again, if Lupine lifted his head, or turned to peer back the way he had come.

It was fortunate that the tunnels had many corners and turns to hide behind, or else North and Tooth would have been spotted. They had killed their lights as not to tip the canine off, but North now had to follow Tooth blind, since wolf eyes and bird eyes are better suited to a lightless environment.

The fairy held his massive gloved hand and pulled him along, wincing as his boots clunked down. How Lupine hadn't heard them was a miracle.

Bunny almost slammed into them as they entered a three-way section of the tunnels. Lupine had gone down the long straight ahead, Bunny whammed into his friends, causing a clamor to ring out.

Lupine could no longer ignore them. He turned and bounded back, almost landing on the heap of them had they not dispersed at the last second.

"So you have arrived, my favorite prey! Fat and meaty, fast and furry, and Miss feathers!" he growled out, biting and snapping at them. North kindled his light again and everyone blinked and Lupine pawed at him, knocked the light from his fingers and blacking it out.

The fight in the underground night commenced,

Jack had not been expecting the addition of the four Descendants, but having them along would probably help further down the line, superior numbers and all that.

They were walking along the tunnel in twos, Jackie and Mim led the way, followed by Jack and Sandy, Billy and Vincent and James and Jacob brought up the rear.

Because of this, Jack was watching Mim and Jackie's backs, the black and white and the pale blue. Jackie was about the same height as him, so was taller than Mim, although that may also be down to the biological age gap. He also couldn't help but notice Jackie's limp, usually you could barely tell unless you were looking for it, but it always got worse when she was tired.

He also remembered the night she'd got it, and he'd nearly had a heart attack that night. Hoodie soaked with blood in the left side, same with her ripped and torn jeans on the right. How she had still been standing had been and was still beyond him.

Jack squinted in the gloom, some light being provided by Jackie's ice/dreamsand combo and Billy's flashlight. Was it his eyes playing tricks, or did he see someone ahead of them?

He squinted and saw a small flash of white hair.

"Guys." He hissed, and Jackie and Mim picked up on it quickly. His alert was also heard by Colin, who looked in their direction, and sprinted away in the opposite direction.

"Don't you try to outrun me!" Yelled Mim and she charged headlong after him, quickly followed by Jackie.

Jack started running to catch up as well, but lagged behind his Descendant as she seemed determined to keep up with Mim as she changed form. Jack was quickly matched by the two Descendants of Bunnymund and Sandy hovered just above, with James and Jacob stuck behind them.

Jack saw Jackie and Mim turn sharply to the right and he sped up to follow.

He skidded to a halt behind Jackie, and saw several things at once. One, Mim wasn't there, instead, an ice tiger stood where she should be. Two, Colin was facing Jackie, supposedly with little fear in the dead end. Three, there was a shelf behind him, which was different to the rest of the tunnels.

On the shelf were a few items shrouded in shadow, yet the light from Jackie's ice prism didn't seem to touch them.

"Alright." Said Jackie, breathing heavily from the run. "Nowhere to go. I suggest you give up. Stand down."

"I could." Agreed Colin. "But where's the fun in that?"

His hand burst into flames, and despite the protective armour Jackie took a step back, afraid. Colin's grin widened and he aimed at the ice tiger, then fired.

The tiger roared in pain, matching Jackie sudden scream as she staggered back and to the side, clutching her chest as if in pain and watching with horror plastered on her face as the tiger melted. The face melded and twisted into something out of a nightmare until it fell to the floor. The prism fell from Jackie's hand and smashed into many, golden flecked pieces as the tiger turned into a puddle on the floor.

Jack also took a step back, then clutched his staff and pointed it threateningly at Colin as Jackie fell to the floor in shock.

"You, little…" Jack was struggling for words.

Colin grinned sickly and spun something dark in his hand as the rest of the group caught up, and just watched, a little sick at the scene.

"Oh, this is so satisfying." Said Colin, looking at Jackie with a grin, and not seeming to care too much as the temperature plummeted. "I assume my dear aunt is hiding in the shadows again. Come out come out wherever you are." He called in a mock sing song voice, taking slow steps forward and still spinning the dark object, oddly in a gloved hand.

"Don't you want to know where your parents are down here?"

Jack prepared to fire, but Colin had underestimated something. A distraught Jackie is not a Jackie you want to meet in a dark alley.

Jackie let out a guttural cry and used the newly formed ice to charge forward in less than a second, grabbing Colin by the collar of his shirt and slamming him into a nearby wall. Jack could only see half of her face, but that half was twisted into a snarl of grief and rage.

He actually took a step back, he was not expecting this, he'd never even seen Jackie like this, this out of control. It wasn't Mim level, but, it still scared him.

"WHERE ARE THEY!?" Jackie roared into Colin's face and the younger man leaned back, shocked by the sudden turn of events. He had also not expected Jackie to explode like this, the Jackie he knew had always been calm, in control.

He actually looked afraid for a second, then stopped, and chuckled.

"You know? You almost had me there."

Jackie's face faltered. "What?" She asked dangerously, still keeping up the livid with despair persona.

"I can read emotions, you're good, but you're not really that angry."

Colin pushed Jackie back with a burst of fire and Jackie crossed her arms across her face, the metal armour protecting her unprotected face. She hadn't lowered her visor in time before Colin was spotted.

Jack also reeled back from the heat, trying to get ice over to Mim so she could reform from the puddle of water. She started to, but Colin moved with unnatural ease on the ice and flung the item he'd been holding at Mim, lodging it inside her as she went back to her normal form.

She screamed as she fully formed, suddenly feeling a burning pain from whatever had been flung at her. She fell to her knees, hugging herself as the pain intensified. She dropped, clutching her middle, where the object had nestled and tried to grab Colin's ankle but she seemed to implode on herself, curling up and moaning audibly in pain. Eyes a horrifying neon green.

"MIM!" Jack cried, almost completely forgetting about Colin and rushing over to his girlfriend as she cried out. He took her in his arms and saw tears run down her face. He placed a hand on her stomach but she screamed and he winced, wrapping her up in him, not knowing how to ease the pain.

The fire cleared and Jackie could finally see as Colin used more fire to get past the rest of the group blocking the exit.

Jackie stood, torn as her friend held his girlfriend, clearly panicked as the whole reason they were down there made his escape. Mim was clenched tight, unmoving, like a black hole in space, like the black mark on her stomach.

"Davies! Hello!" Cried Vincent from the entrance to the dead end, parts of his armour and visor blackened from the flames. "He's getting away!"

It took Jackie a second to remember that the four Descendants were waiting on her orders. She needed to push her shock aside and get back in control. It had all gone wrong.

"P-pursue! Go!" She cried, pointing after Colin. "Billy, help me here!"

Vincent, James and Jacob raced after Colin and Jackie made her way over to Mim.

"We need to get out of here." She said, shaking slightly.

"Jackie." Said Billy, who'd moved past Jack and Mim and gone over to the shelf. "There's a map here."

Jackie looked over her shoulder as Billy held up a hand drawn map of the tunnels, and he was pointing to the label that said 'hostages'.

"Go find them." Said Jackie. "Get them out of here, preferably to the base if you can."

Billy nodded and ran out, following the map with his flashlight.

It wasn't the pain in Mim's eyes that scared him the most. Jack was scared of the stillness. She seemed to be whining in some small place in her throat, which elicited a high sort of cry from her, but she wasn't moving. When Mim lost control she would be constantly writhing, fighting, battling for control. But now she lay still, clenched fists and pounding heart that he heard in the scary place in his skull. Or maybe that was his heart. If she was still he was scared she wasn't fighting, scared it had taken her, or worse she had surrendered. She wouldn't...she couldn't...

Mim's cries suddenly quietened and Jackie looked over to see that Sandman had thrown some Dreamsand in Mim's face, making her fall asleep. However, the pain was still apparent on her face.

"Let's head back the way we came." Said Jackie, finding herself taking charge as Jack was distraught, Mim was unconscious and Sandman just looked in shock.

"Come on."


	31. Chapter 31

31-Going, Going, Gone…

Mim wanted to scream, and she was screaming. Every breath was thousand knives in her chest. But her chest was the least of her worries. As it rose and fell rapidly, sporadically her stomach felt like the weight of the world, quite literally. A black mark was on her stomach, and it had no sensation attached to it other than pain.

Asleep, she did not dream, only heard a screech that she could not name, whether it was her voice or not, she didn't know. But one voice she did know and she clawed her way up, out of the dark, out of the black to cling to it.

"Hold on snowflake! Just hold on! Man in Moon, no! Jackie!" the voice was like music. So sweet, so caring, no matter how distressed it was. The light blue voice was sweet and cool.

"We've got to get her to the base!" Another voice she knew. This one was blue too, she thought. But darker, much darker, like electricity striped with white and navy.

There was gold too, from what she could perceive, but there was no sound. She didn't care though. The pain was like a drug. Corrosive and bitter but she had no motivation to stir.

"Sandy's right, we can't just sit here!" the light blue voice called in her head. All she could see were the colors. The colors of the sound, of the scent, of the feel. She couldn't see anything, but if she could, it was blurred in pain and suffering and sweetness.

"She has to hold on!" light blueness blinded her.

"She can. I know she can, she's tough Jack now move!" electric blue struck her eyesight. Tempered gold hung in the corner of her sight, serene.

She felt somebody lift her, and the grey feel of the ground vanished from her sight. She felt the yellow softness of a fabric under her knees and back. Then they were moving in blazing silver streak.

Jackie was calm, she had to be calm because Jack certainly wasn't. Again, he was trying to be calm as they raced through the tunnels, but she could see him shaking, barely taking his eyes off the limp girl in his arms.

Although, she could still feel the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end for some reason, her heart was still pounding and hands shaking. She'd put it down to the confrontation when she felt it earlier, but now…

Jackie shook her head. There were more important things to be worried about than phantom sensations. It was probably just adrenaline anyway.

They were following the grains of golden sand left by Sandman when they'd previously walked through the tunnels, and very quickly they made it back to the trap.

They had to pause to get through the broken and bent bars, and all the while Mim didn't stir all that much. Despite the Dreamsand her eyes were half open, but they didn't seem to be seeing.

They reached the shaft and Jackie did take note of the plant roots in hand and foot hold positions, but decided that they would take too long.

"Hold on tight, we're going up."

Without waiting for a response Jackie stomped her foot and lifted her hands, forming a great pillar of ice to form and rise from beneath them, getting them to the surface.

In her head Jackie was running through plans. It would take forever to get to the Boston Branch Tunnel by foot, so they'd have to go by air, and quickly.

"Sandy, you okay to fly?" Jackie's voice was clipped, impatient, she had no idea how much time they had.

Sandman nodded and rose into the air.

"Jack, you just watch Mim, I'll control the skates." Jackie formed ice skating blades on Jack's feet and on her boots, following the indent on the bottom of them.

Without wasting anymore time Jackie took off skating on an ice bridge in the air. It had to be early now, no one was around to a figure in armour on a rapidly appearing and disappearing ice bridge. Jack was behind her, talking softly to Mim as Jackie controlled the skates to make sure he didn't fall off.

They reached the entrance sight and Jackie jumped down, opening the Tunnel and letting the others go in before her, so she could close it.

The Tunnel journey seemed to drag a bit, not helped that when they got to the exit the system seemed to be taking it's time. It was probably going at the same speed as it always did, but to Jackie it might as well have been talking in slow mo.

Jack had Mim's head in his hand, hair cascading over his fingers. Her lips were moving, no sound though no sound. Her eyes had color in them, some sort of blue that changed from light to electric to Sandy gold.

Finally, finally they got to the Main Cavern, and Jackie wasted no time in yelling.

"MEDIC! WE NEED A MEDIC!"

North had Lupine by the tail. Tooth's wings had left slices up and down his nose and body. Bunny was delivering swift strikes to the large wolf. How much time had they lost here? How were the others faring?

The doors to the Council Chamber opened immediately and the other Descendant leaders came racing out. Jason, the most experienced, took one look at the situation and started giving orders.

"Claire, prep the Medical Cavern, get anyone else down that you need. Samson, help Mr Frost and Mr Sandman. Jackie, I would like a full report as soon as you are able."

Jack followed Claire into the Medical Cavern and Samson approached the Sandman, who didn't look as calm as normal.

"We've still got people in those tunnels." Said Jackie, rubbing Taboo behind the ears as the ice tiger came over. "Billy is finding and bringing up Mim's parents. Vincent and the Beck twins have gone after Colin, we're not losing him this time."

"I'll get some of my pack to head to Boston." Said Tracey, and she disappeared into the shadows.

"The others?" Asked Alexander.

"No idea. We'll have to wait until the radios come back online, assuming that they went down with radios."

"They did." Said Jason, looking up and down at Jackie. She looked alright physically, but was shaking and clearly tired.

"I suggest heading to your quarters. Get some rest. We'll let you know if anything happens."

Jackie paused, and nodded, rest sounded good, there wasn't much else she could do. "Right you are." She said, and disappeared into the Sleeping Quarters.

Jack handed Mim to Claire a little reluctantly, but the Descendant of Toothiana was cool and calm in her hastily applied doctors clothes. She seemed to understand the necessity of time here, so did all of her prep as quickly as she could.

They were at the back of the Medical Cavern, in a sealed off section for operations.

"What happened?" Asked Claire, but when Jack didn't respond she asked more urgently. "Jack,what happened to Mimic? What caused this?"

"She… she got hit by something."

"What?"

"I-I don't know! It was dark, sharp I guess. Maybe." Jack wasn't sure.

"Okay." Claire was running all the possible scenarios in her head. From the sounds of it there could be internal bleeding from some kind of blade, but given the state Mimic was in, it was likely to have some kind of magic base.

"Mr Frost, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"What!? No! I-!"

"I appreciate that you're worried, but you won't help her like this. Jackie should be in her quarters if you need her."

Jack tried to resist, but the med team pushed him back and he was forced out and left the back room, sitting heavily on one of the beds in the main part of the Medical Cavern. A few more people entered, presumably Medics, and Jack just watched the dividing screen as the group got to work.

Jackie bumped into Calvin almost as soon as she entered the Sleeping Quarters.

"What's going on?!" He demanded.

"Mim, Mim is…"

"What? Nym's what?!"

"I don't know. Something, inside her, I don't know!" Jackie's nerves were frayed as she tried to describe what happened.

"She was in a lot of pain…"

"Was?" Calvin sounded like he didn't know whether to be relieved or worried.

"She's unconscious, Claire's seeing to her."

"Where is she?" Calvin made to move, but Jackie put a still gloved hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

"Whatever it is, is inside her, therefore it needs to be taken out. You can go to the Medical Cavern if you want, but it wouldn't surprise me if they'd started already."

Calvin was breathing surprisingly heavily, looking like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"We've found your parents, I think." Jackie added. "Billy's hopefully bringing them up now."

"You think, hopefully?" Repeated Calvin scornfully.

"It's highly likely. You'll know when they get here."

Without another word Jackie moved on, not stopping until she reached the pale blue door. Once inside she dropped to her knees and hugged Taboo.

It may all have been an act back in the tunnels, but that was still something she never wanted to experience again.

Lupine yelped in the tunnels as Bunny delivered a kick to his ribs. North had released his tail but the canine felt a pain in the bones. His legs quivered but he kept charging. The boy needed time. He would have time.

Jack ran past Calvin, not even bothering the young man with his time, or breath. If Cal had wanted to stop him, he would have been tangling with an angry, sad, scared, skittish winter boy.

Jack was in Jackie's room before she had even had time to close the door.

"I thought you'd be with her." Jackie admitted to him, careful of his temper at the moment.

"I c-can't stay in-in-in there. I'll freeze the p-p-place or hurt someone, or scream o-or…" he rattled on and on about what he would do and the list was not optimistic.

Jackie sat on her bed as Jack paced around her chamber. Frost crawled up the wall, icicles hung from the ceiling and it began to snow. If it had been anyone but Jackie, frostbite would have been more than a nickname.

"Listen Jack, she's going to be fine. Claire and her team have seen everything and-"

"I know, but I don't trust them." Jack had abandoned all courtesy and blunt words tumbled from his mouth. He was shuffling the accumulated snow on the floor until he had made himself a rut in the new white carpet.

Jackie frowned as he said that about her coworkers, but decided to let it go for now. The guy was freaked enough as it was.

"Then trust her, she won't give up easy. No magical item can straight kill. If she put up enough of a fight she can-"

"Delay the kill, slow the poison, What? Black marks are bad. You know that!" Jack's voice had risen in pitch and he sounded like a scared kid, as if it were him facing death, not her.

Jackie guessed it must be something like that. Like seeing his sister on the ice, like falling through. She wondered if he wanted to "fall through the ice" again instead of Mim.

"Are you going to keep interrupting me?"

Jack shook his head, but she knew he had no intention to stop. So she lay down and looked at the ceiling, falling asleep to the tortured tune of shuffling snow.

Adam looked at the Yeti he was walking alongside as David bounded ahead. The old codger didn't know when to quit.

"So, how's things at the Pole?" Asked Adam, trying to make conversation. The Yeti shrugged and something he couldn't understand.

"Right…"

Sam and Holly walked along at a brisk pace, which only grew brisker as the sound of snarls reached their ears.

They ended up running towards it, and saw in the middle of a three way tunnel, three Guardians fighting Lupine.

Holly took a quick stock of Lupine's condition as Sam flung out an arm to stop her moving forward. His fur was matted with sweat, and he wasn't moving as swiftly as a wolf should. He looked in pain.

"Stay here!" Barked Sam before she ran forward. Holly opened her mouth to argue, but then saw North get kicked back and hard into a wall.

"You know, I'm okay with this." She said, more to herself, taking a step back.

Sam charged in and flung her arms out, drawing them upwards to trap Lupine's paws in the earth.

"Who the heck are ya?!" Cried Bunnymund, jumping back to avoid Lupine's teeth.

"Samantha Osbourne, Descendant of Bunnymund." Replied Sam. "If you wanna know why, the Heads got a little twitchy and sent backup."

"Of course they did." Said Bunnymund as Sam charged past and flung her own series of kicks at Lupine, while Holly stood back and winced at every yelp.

From the same tunnel that North and Toothiana had come from, Mitchell and Richard came charging in, Mitchell waving a battle axe made out of sand and Richard sporting a boomerang, which quickly collided with Lupine's muzzle.

"How many of you are there?" Asked Toothiana, ducking and diving at Lupine.

"Just one other I think." Replied Sam. "I told her to sit out."

"Why?"

"She's a Scribe!"

"I take offense to that tone!" Called Holly, quickly regretting it as Lupine turned his head to her position. "...Shoot."

Holly gathered her sand and formed a bow and arrow out of it, firing at Lupine's eye. He howled in pain and turned away, shaking his head to try and clear the sudden drowsiness. He hoped that pup was done doing what he was trying to do, he wasn't going to last much longer against this lot.

Lupine quickly got his answer. There was a bloom of fire from the third tunnel and North wrapped Tooth and Bunny in his coat to avoid the heat, while the armoured Descendants took it like water off a duck's back.

They couldn't see much in the flames, but almost as soon as the fire faded Sam's second older brother, Vincent came charging through.

"Get him!" He yelled. "He attacked Mimic!"

That statement left the three Guardians temporarily stunned as Vincent kept running, quickly followed by the Beck twins as they skated through.

"The little…" Bunnymund trailed off into phrases you wouldn't expect coming from the Easter Bunny. "I'll wring his neck!"

Bunnymund charged off, quickly followed by a livid Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus.

Leaving the four Descendants to tackle the Big Bad Wolf.

"Ah, tasty morsels." He growled, despite the fact the Guardians had done a number on him. "You'll be easier."

"Think again!" Cried Sam, who started pulling earth down from the ceiling in attempts to attack him.

"What are you doing!?" Cried Mitchell, forming a rope out of sand to hold the giant wolf. "You'll bring the tunnel down doing that!"

"That's the idea old man!"

"Old man?!" Cried Mitchell indignantly. "Just stop before you bury us too!"

He dug his heels into the ground as Lupine pulled and bit at the sand as Richard peppered him with boomerang strikes and his own blocks of earth.

"Holly, a little help?" Grunted Mitchell as he struggled to hold Lupine in place.

"R-right." Holly moved closer, dropping the bow and formed a muzzle around Lupine's snout with a rope for her to hold onto, then formed weights around her feet to keep her in place as Lupine tossed his head.

The tunnel roof started to crack and Sam called. "Timber!"

Mitchell's eyes widened. "Scatter!" He yelled and the four of them dived away from the sudden deluge of earth and rocks. Mitchell ended up in Holly's tunnel as the rocks buried Lupine, while Sam and Rich ended up in the opposite tunnels.

David paused and Adam looked at Phil. "Did you hear something?"

Phil shrugged and shook his head while David had his head tilted to the side.

"Nah." Said David, "Probably just some stones falling."

Holly stared at the sudden blockage. "Reckon that'll hold him?"

"He's immortal." Replied Mitchell, getting to his feet. "He'll dig himself out before long. Let's go!"

Mitchell formed a motorbike out of sand and Holly formed a side car. Mitchell was quickly off, trusting the two earth moving Descendants of Bunnymund to be able to get themselves out.

The bike went about as fast as your normal bike, but made no noise and glowed, so Holly could easily tell Mitchell which way to go based on her and Sam's footprints.

The scenery barely changed as they sped through the tunnels, but eventually they found that they weren't the only ones left down here.

The back of someone's dark green armour came into view, along with two people, one man, one woman, who didn't look they were Descendants. They were both in civilian clothing, while all Descendants down here were in armour.

Billy suddenly heard the two and turned in time to see Mitchell stop the motorbike. The two non-Descendants looked at the glowing motorbike in awe and a little fear.

"What the heck are you two doing?!" He cried. "Weren't you with Sam?" He asked Holly.

"Sam's making her own way back." Said Holly. "Who're these two?"

"The Loutens."

Mitchell was the first to respond after a second or so of stunned silence. "Well, they'd better get in then."


	32. Chapter 32

32-New Discoveries

The Guardians all sat on the opposite side of the dividing screen. Their breath was like tar in the air and in their lungs. They could see the doctors scattering and they heard the occasional command from Claire, but they focused on the obscured shadow, lying on the table.

Jackie now stood outside, talking with the other Heads as well as the Descendants who had been down in the tunnels. A few were still missing. She wondered of the controlled cave in caused by Sam had held them up somehow. The Yetis were gone too, but she didn't have time to worry about that.

She was worried about Mim, of course she was, but for now she had to play leader, giving Jason reports and conducting a debriefing with the rest of the Descendants. Meanwhile Taboo paced impatiently, growling to herself.

Billy noticed Taboo basically displaying Jackie's worry.

"You okay kiddo?" He asked.

"Fine." Said Jackie, and Billy raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

"Uh huh. Jackie, I've known you since you were fourteen, that's never been true coming out of your mouth."

Jackie rubbed her eyes beneath her glasses, having dumped her armour in her chambers.

"...Nightmare." She had just been glad that Jack had been too restless to hang around to see her having the nightmare. It had been a rough one.

"Wanna talk about it?" Billy asked, tilting his head down slightly so he didn't appear so tall.

"Not really."

"Ya know it's not healthy."

"After what's happened the past few days are you really that surprised?"

"Not really." Billy admitted. "But again, you need ta stop withdrawin' inwards when somethin's wrong. I can name at least five people right now who would want to help."

"I know I know, but that's not important right now."

"Maybe not, but just talk to someone, me, Sally, Nigel, maybe not Tina, she's not the most sympathetic."

Jackie smirked. "Maybe later, I've still got stuff to do. Maybe I'll head to the Training Halls later, let off some steam."

She had also arranged for Mim's parents to stay in the Sleeping Quarters. Cal was in the male Descendants of Mimic quarters, so Mrs. Louten went to the female half of Tooth's section, and her husband was in the male half of North's. They were currently confined to the Sleeping Quarters part of those floors.

Their son wasn't aware of their presence and vice versa, and communication was limited to the husband and wife only.

They hadn't been told yet.

They wanted that decision to be Mimic's.

But right now she lay in the Medical Cavern, unconscious, unmoving and unresponsive as Claire and her medic team labored to remove an object that Calvin had embedded in her during the battle.

Earlier she, Jack and Jason had been in the Records Room looking for magical and natural things that could leave black marks on the skin, like the single patch on Mim's stomach. Jason was the only one not in the Medical Cavern who had access to the section at the back, so it made sense for him to look there. The two ice users sat opposite each other on the curved tables in front of the HOG Globe with piles of brown files scattered around them on the table.

"Blood Affectations." Jackie read. The brown file was as thick as a book and most things in here resulted the blood turning black or clotting or something of that sense. She cast it aside. Mim was dealing with something solid.

"The Dark Knives of Sleep." Jack picked up a paper, "Put victim in comatose state...blah blah...broken by mix of potions and essence of sun."

"Claire said it might've been something sharp." Jackie looked at the article.

"Nah. I saw it. It wasn't sharp, it was round, like a rock."

"Are you sur-"

"Yes! I am!"

Jackie was taken aback by Jack's outburst, but decided to brush it off. He wasn't thinking as clearly as he normally would be.

Half an hour after that, Jack had rejoined the other Guardians in the waiting area, just a few feet from her. At some point he heard a cry from the doctors, who all began to move frantically quickly. Claire's voice was working a mile a minute as she shouted directions, and tools were brought.

"What is it? Can you tell us what is going on?" Tooth lifted from her seat and began to hover. Her feathers had started falling out when she had heard. That only happened when she lost believers or was terribly worried. Bunny had been fidgeting with his fur, his ears moving up and down and up and down. North sat, almost comatose himself.

One of the doctors, a man in his fifties with streaks of white in his brown stubble walked out from behind the screen, in a white sleeved apron and mask, as well as a cap that covered his hair. He pulled off his latex gloves and threw them in a nearby bin. Pulling his mask down from his mouth he spoke to his superiors, who were sitting on the very edges of their seats.

"Ve know vhat he put in her." he said solemnly in a German accent. He held up a hand to silence the slew of questions.

"Care to share mate!" Bunny didn't like how this man knew more than him, how he could help when Bunny couldn't.

"Remember back in der day vhen Pitch made armor from Core Lead." The doctor said, reference lead from the earth's core. It had never seen light, and so would absorb it, or any other energy for that matter.

"He didn't!" Jack squeaked, his voice cracking.

"Ve did a study years ago after an incident, und ve concluded that Core Lead can absorb the energy that gives any powered creature of its vell...powers."

"And…" Jack pressed, noticing his unresolved tone.

"It also causes extreme pain und premature death if left untreated." The doctor spoke the rest quickly. "Ve only knew that this happened with Descendants, but the same seems to hold true for immortals."

The assembled took a collective breath. Tooth's lip began to tremble, Bunny's ears drooped and North stirred and slouched over, his elbows on his knees and hands on his face. Jack felt tears in his eyes, but he froze them and wiped them away. He wouldn't want her to see him like this if she was here or not.

"So doc, take it out!" Tooth seemed to see this as an uncomplicated matter. They couldn't just remove it?

"Ve cannot." he saw the murderous looks, "Not yet at least. The Lead ist pulling out her emotional energy, und vould therefore steal her powers, but she is clinging to it. Ve cannot remove it for fear of removing her spiritual energy as well. It vould remove, in essence, her."

Tooth was now sobbing. Bunny's ears were flat and North had let a big santa sized tear drop from his blue eyes. Sandy had entered after a catnap, and he flashed a multitude of sad emoticons overhead.

"There's got to be a way to get it out. It's going to kill her!" Jack stood face to face with the doctor. He could hear Claire rustling.

"Unless she can either pull the emotional energy back, or release it, she vill die slowly in coma. But if ve remove with her attached, she vill die now."

"How we can do something?" Bunny saw that there was hope. He now resigned to do something about it. "He said she need to pull it back or let it go. If she releases it, she will probably lose her powers…" Bunny didn't want to venture it that area. Mim had value besides her versatility, but it would be a loss for her and them all.

"So ve need to get her to pull back power." North clenched his fist.

"How?" Tooth asked the obvious question.

"Someone has to go in. Someone that she will be able to hear." Jack said. Mim's head was likely to be swimming with emotion energy and she needed to hear a voice that would get through.

"Alright mate." Bunny lifted him by the hood and shoved him behind the curtain.

Jackie punched and kicked one of the hanging sandbags in the Training Halls. Mid section punch, roundhouse kick, back kick, inner crescent, hook punch, jab. On and on, it was like she didn't know how to stop, all the while bouncing on her toes on the sprung mat floor.

Images from the mission and her recent nightmare ran around and around behind her eyes, forming a silent film of events in her head.

Colin's smug grin, canine teeth, Mim crying out in pain, Taboo melting, the spinning black shard, water pouring down her lungs. Fire, fire everywhere. Burning, terrible, inescapable.

Round and round they went, faster and faster as Jackie attacked the bag, until finally she couldn't take it anymore.

With a loud cry she push kicked the bag so hard it swung back at a roughly 45 degree angle and swung back down for her to hit again.

Another punch followed, weaker this time, then Jackie stopped and leaned her forehead against the bag, breathing frost patterns onto the leather surface.

It had all gone wrong. The mission was supposed to be relatively simple. Go in, find and restrain Colin, possibly Lupine as well, find Mim's parents, leave.

So far, the only thing that had actually worked in that plan was rescuing Mim's parents and leaving.

Then there was the black shard. Jackie knew what it was, she knew she did, it was on the tip of her tongue.

She punched the bag again in frustration, but most of her anger had already been spent.

She took a step back, breathing heavily as her mind continued to whir. Why? Why had it gone so wrong?

Colin. Colin had had a plan as well, another motive. The radios jamming had to have been down to him, he had wanted them to find him, but also wanted a degree of privacy.

Why? Jackie wondered, and the answer came to her in the same manner.

Colin had done two things, both to people he said that he hated. He had tried to melt Taboo, in order to break Jackie presumably, then attacked Mim.

Had that been his plan? It fit together, but was there something else? Jackie felt like she was still missing something.

She concentrated on the facts. Colin hates HOG, hates his powers, hates Jackie and hates Mim.

He had done something about the last two. HOG, it wasn't really feasible to do that, the Descendants of Pitch and the Black Furs would never trust him. Which left his powers.

Did he have a plan to handle that? If so, what?

"I don't think I've seen a sandbag take so much abuse."

Jackie jumped out her skin and whirled to face the intruder on her thoughts. Jason stood nearby, next to the wall.

He tilted his head. "Frustrated about something?"

"You could say that." Said Jackie, a little annoyed and wary. Jason rarely had good things to say.

Jason nodded and threw her a water bottle, which she caught and took a gulp from.

"Where's Taboo?" Asked Jason, having hardly ever seen the two apart.

"Ice training room." Jackie replied, wiping her mouth before the water could freeze. "Pouncing practice I think."

She took another drink. "Any news?"

"Word from Claire says that they'd found lead from the Earth's Core in Mim."

Everything suddenly clicked in Jackie's brain.

"I'M AN IDIOT!" She suddenly yelled, turning and punching the sandbag hard enough to make it swing.

"You guessed?"

"I felt it in the tunnels." Jackie explained, a little calmer and putting the water bottle down. "The tingling on the back the neck, the sensation of wanting to run. I put it down to nerves, but it was the lead!"

"You've come across it before?" Asked Jason.

"Melbourne. Paura, one of the Descendants of Pitch, had a dagger of it. Last I saw it was in a drain."

Jackie placed her forehead on the bag and hit her head against it. "I knew I recognised it, it's been bugging me since we got back!"

"In your defense, we didn't think it would have such a dramatic effect on an immortal. The only difference is that immortals can stop it from killing them by releasing their powers. If what happened to Mimic happened to us then we die either way" Said Jason.

"Small comfort" Thought Jackie.

"And you had other things on your mind," Continued Jason. "You needed to get everyone out, you needed to make sure someone pursued Colin. Overall, you did a good job."

"Good isn't great." Countered Jackie. "The plan went wrong."

"Not every plan is going to go perfect." Said Jason.

"That's why I prefer thinking on my feet with a vague plan."

Jason thought for a second as Jackie sized up the bag again.

"I'm curious about something."

"What?" Asked Jackie, punching the bag again.

"I know your history, and I know what happened down in the tunnels. What I'm curious about is, if that hadn't been a trick, if Taboo had actually been down there. Would you have…" Jason left the question hanging, but Jackie didn't even need a second to guess it's meaning.

She stopped, closed her eyes and remembered every time she'd lost control. The anger, the despair, the fear, the pain. Last time had been the worst, she had actually had some control, what she'd done was give in to some, temporary madness brought on by stress. She hoped.

"... I don't know."

Jason nodded, sensing that it probably wasn't the full or even true answer, but it had been a rather personal question.

There was another second of silence.

"Walk with me."

Jackie turned and looked at him. "Sorry?"

"Come on, it'll be worth it."

Jackie frowned, but she put her shoes on, collected her hoodie from the side and followed Jason down a level, into the forges and armoury.

"I'm guessing you haven't been down here much." Said Jason as they walked past the inactive forges and dusty anvils. One of them did actually appear to be in use, but Jason made sure to walk as far away from it for Jackie's sake.

"Not really."

"Then, I might be about to blow your mind."

The pair reached the back of the room, where a door stood, they walked through, and it took Jackie a few seconds to process what she was seeing.

Rows upon rows of swords, knives, daggers, bows, arrows, spears, boomerangs, axes, shields and staffs made up the walls, almost making a library of weapons. Most were normal steel or wood, with a section of roughly fifty weapons being made of what was known as light enhanced lead.

It was lead from the Earth's Core that had been placed in uninterrupted sun and moonlight for seven days, diluting its dangerous properties and allowing it to be used by Descendants of the Guardians. The Guardians could wield pure Core Lead, but for Descendants diluted was safer. Especially since just touching the stuff was enough to burn a Descendant's skin, unless that Descendant was a Descendant of Pitch.

"Whoa…" Jackie breathed, looking around on awe. "I knew we were packing but, wow."

"That's not the best of it."

Jason led Jackie over to a cabinet that contained five weapons. Four of which Jackie had seen when she'd taken her Head Oath about a year and a half ago.

There was a gladius with a five pointed star on the round pommel and scabbard that was gold and yellow and seemed to shimmer. Patterns and shapes seemed to shift in the design, with only HOG's logo remained constant.

Next was a sheathed pair of boomerangs, the holster was leather and decorated with green and electric blue gems, while flowers and eggs were etched into the leather, accompanied by HOG's logo.

Then there was the sabre with a solid purple scabbard with golden feathers and teeth, along with the logo in silver.

The final one she already knew was a long sword, with a golden hilt and bell shaped pommel. The scabbard was red and gold with more bells and long swords, with HOG's logo of course in there.

Jason pulled out the one that Jackie didn't recognise. It was clearly a staff, with a domed end poking out of the sheath. The leather was mainly plain, but dyed dark blue and threaded with silver to make accurate frost patterns down it.

"You know what these are?" He asked her.

"Yeah, they're ceremonial weapons."

"Yes and no. They are used in ceremonies, yes. However, they are functional weapons."

He handed the staff to Jackie. "Have a look, and maybe you'll see why."

Jackie frowned but took the staff and pulled it out of its sheath.

It was made of a bright white metal and was thin enough to wrap her fingers around it. Both ends were domed, one with a 'H' at the tip and HOG's logo at the other end. It stood at about six feet, taller than Jackie and just about reaching Jason's height. It also had frost patterns curling down it, but it didn't interfere with the weapon itself. Despite being made of metal, it felt about as light as a wooden staff.

This was a weapon for a Head, and Jackie didn't need much of an explanation as to why.

"This is meteor metal." She said disbelievingly. "I thought Alexander said that all weapons made out of it were lost centuries ago?"

"They were, this is all we've managed to forge since. And that staff is yours."

Jackie took another look at the staff, and held it out back towards Jason.

"I-I can't use this! I mean-!"

"You are a Head of the Human Order of Guardians, one of the highest authorities in the Descendant world, yes you can."

Jackie just stared down the length of the staff, it was simple, but beautiful. And, it felt right in her hands. She loved her arm blades, she always got a kick out of comic book nerd Graham calling her 'Wolverine', but this was, right, in a way. She couldn't describe it.

She'd trained with staffs before, so had no issue giving it a quick go. The training staffs had never felt like this though, this staff actually seemed balanced.

"It's called Istapp. Norwegian for Icicle. We figured it was appropriate since that was where you found the information that said you had a signature weapon."

"I didn't find it. It just got, presented to me, I guess."

"No matter. Keep hold of it." Jason added as Jackie put it back in its sheath. "We might need it against Colin."

Jackie blinked, confused. "It won't have any effect, not like lead from the Earth's Core would."

"That's not the point. It's more of a message. You don't mess with a Head." Jason reached into the cabinet as Jackie slung the holster over her shoulder. The staff lay diagonally across her back, the tip peeking over her left shoulder.

"It can also split into two if you need it to. I'm sure you'll find the catch for that in the down time we've got." Jason said as he took out the long sword and strapped on the sword belt.

"Why do you need that?" Jackie asked

"I'm coming too."

"What?! But you never-"

"Exactly, I never. It's about time I did."

It took Jackie a few seconds to register this.

"B-but, we're not going now, right? We've got to wait on Mim."

"There's been some, complications."

"What?"

Jason explained in more detail from what he said earlier and Jackie's face went paler than usual.

"Oh by moon." She breathed. "I didn't think it would affect her that badly." That word Jason had said in his explanation. Death. It seemed almost unthinkable to Jackie that someone like Mim could die. Descendants called them immortals for a reason, and yet it was clearly possible.

Because Mim was dying.

"No one did." Said Jason. "Claire and her team are doing what they can." Jason looked at his watch. "I'll give them another hour, after that we have to go after Colin, with or without Mimic."

Jackie let out a sigh, seeing the logic. "I don't like it."

"I'm not asking you to like it. I'm asking you to do what's necessary. We need to bring Colin in before anything else happens."

"...I know."

"Good. Oh, and Sam and Richard got back a few minutes ago, I was taking their reports before I found you. If they're out of there…"

"Then chances are, so is Lupine." Jackie finished, feeling a bit sick.

"Another reason for the meteor metal."

Jason checked his watch again. "See you in at least an hour, full armour."

"Yes sir." Said Jackie dryly.

Jason smirked and wagged his finger. "Watch your tone Davies." He chuckled and started to leave. "You know, it was nice to talk without having an argument for once."

"Agreed." Said Jackie, close behind. "We should do this more often."


	33. Chapter 33

33-Don't Hold Back

It wasn't looking good.

Claire had been reasonably optimistic when Mimic had first arrived. It was true that she hadn't looked great, but it would have been a simple case of going and taking it out, then allowing her time to recover.

Now, knowing what it was, things weren't so great.

There was the initial toxicity of the lead, which had been dealt with, that was easy in comparison, it was just, the lead itself.

Claire had never actually trained as a surgeon, her profession was a GP, a consultant. However, if you're a Medic in HOG, you're expected to know everything. Thank moon her heritage involved photographic memory.

Another thing that was unexpected was the effect that the lead was having. No Descendant in HOG had powers like Mimic's, nor had they actually done a test beyond a simple stabbing. So naturally the effect was going to be something they hadn't seen, heck, in Descendants of Toothiana, all they knew it did was cause a few temporary memory issues.

Descendants of North just had a brief loss of their magical ability, or in some nasty cases their magic would backfire on themselves, leaving them almost as catatonic as Mimic. Descendants of Bunnymund and Sandman merely couldn't control their elements, or found themselves too weak to stand depending.

Descendants of Jack Frost, well, they'd never tested, but it was theorised that it would cause hyperthermia, and probably pain. Honestly, no one was willing to test, not with so few of them.

With Mimic, no one could have guessed. They had never tested her powers at all in any sense. With all other categories they knew the Guardian's inside and out due to their extensive history. But this was walking a tightrope...blind.

Claire wiped her arm across her forehead, looking at where Mimic was lying. One of the doctors, more of a magic doctor, was running through all of the spells he could think of that might help, but so far, nothing.

As helpful as magic medicine was, it wouldn't be much help in this situation.

It was up to Mimic from here on out, the Medics were just here to try and stabilise her condition if it went downhill.

It was mainly silent in the operating area, there was only the sound of breathing, the beeping of machinery monitoring Mimic's condition, and the Descendant of North Medic who was still muttering to himself.

"Is it possible you could do that more quietly?" Said Claire in her typical monotone. Many people saw her as emotionless, which wasn't strictly true, she was just very good at not showing her emotions. At the moment she was merely irritated.

"It helps me keep track." Defended the Descendant, a young man who looked like he hadn't seen much in the way of actual surgery.

"It's annoying everyone else, try to keep to it down."

The Descendant didn't dare to argue the Head, so settled for just moving his lips.

Movement out of the corner of her eye made her look up, and she saw a white haired teen being placed on her side of the screen.

Jack was in.

He could see her, and he felt like he wanted to faint, but he knew that it wasn't an option. He had one chance on this, and he couldn't screw up. Without her he knew the Guardians would suffer. He would suffer a million times over than when he lost her the first time.

"What are you doing in here?" Claire tried to usher him out, But Jack stood firm.

"Hey, I'm a Guardian, I will do what I will." he said. Claire was stunned by the authority. Technically, the Descendants could not ignore an order from a Guardian, but the Guardians hardly ever utilized their authority. But they could, and now Jack did.

"We have a possible fix, but I need to do something." he hoped his voice wasn't shaking. He needed them to heed and not interfere. The doctors all stepped back and left a meter between the lying girl and themselves.

Jack knelt next to her head. Her eyes were half open and were a pool of swirling colors.

"Hey...um, snowflake. It's me. I hope you can hear and understand me."

There was no response. Had he expected one? Jack wasn't sure.

"There's Core Lead in your stomach snowflake. I know you know what that is. I've seen you read books on it back at the Pole and stuff."

He looked up to see all the medical members staring at him incredulous. They surely thought that he must be crazy.

"It's sucking out your powers, the emotional energy that gives you powers I mean, and you need to pull it back so they can remove it. You have to pull back the energy Mim."

He had seen the lead in her stomach. Amongst the blood, amongst the red, the black was no bigger than a large coin. It wasn't quite flat, but it was more of a disk than anything else. He could see rainbow energy milling around it. It was sucking it in.

He looked up at the disk now, praying for a change. Nothing had changed.

"You have to, Mimic." he said again, heart sinking like a ship at sea.

He looked in her eyes and saw them go black. He stopped breathing.

Mim was still screaming. She could hear herself screeching into the colors around her. The colors kept changing. There was a maroon color, for the man with the accent, the one who always seemed to be closest. When he talked she felt something on her stomach. It didn't feel bad, no worse than the constant pain she had been enduring.

She could feel things touching her, prodding, pulling and pushing.

But she didn't mind.

She missed the light blue voice.

She felt that this was a poor thing to be worrying about right now. Mim knew that something was pulling on her consciousness. What had been a black speck in her emotional vision had grown. She could see it looming closer as time passed. She had disregarded it as another color, another emotion, or sense.

But now she stared at it. It had a shape this black thing. While all the other colors twisted and moved, this one remained still, a circle or sphere in the dimensions of her mind. She dared not move to it, for now Mimic knew that this thing, whatever it was was trying to swallow her.

So she resigned herself to sit in this strange place full of colors and sounds and feelings. She didn't know what else to do.

All the while the black thing kept growing.

"Hey...um, snowflake. It's me. I hope you can hear and understand me."

Her world flashed light blue, a yellow of elation mingled with it, since here she had no body, and could not smile.

It was the voice she had missed, the one she had longed for. It was talking to her. Mim hadn't heard it since she had felt movement, when she had been moving fast. She tried to talk back, but no body meant no voice, and thoughts could not leave here, no matter how hard she thought them.

"There's Core Lead in your stomach snowflake. I know you know what that is. I've seen you read books on it back at the Pole and stuff."

The light blue voice kept speaking. For once Mimic focussed not on the speaking but what was being spoken. She saw images enter her color world.

Memories!

Memories could live in here too!

She saw books with words, the face of the light blue voice that made her feel happy happy happy! She saw her own face, she knew it was her face. But she saw two. One with brown hair and hazel eyes, with glasses. The second with black and white hair and rainbow eyes. She decided she liked the second one better.

Upon seeing her face, all the memories rushed in, tossing her around in a rainbow wave so solid she could feel it in her head.

She remembered who she was, the voice was Jack her boyfriend! She knew everything. She knew where she was.

Suddenly back in the color world, where ethereal sense and emotion surrounded her, she looked on it with new "eyes" so to speak.

This must be my mind, she thought. The deepest part. No wonder it had been odd. In her deepest consciousness, her thoughts were unbridled and she was purely an ever changing emotional soul. Identity and circumstance were not part of that, and so she had let go of them.

But now she was pulling herself together, Jack was still there, she could see the light blue. She waited.

"It's sucking out your powers, the emotional energy that gives you powers I mean, and you need to pull it back so they can remove it. You have to pull back the energy Mim."

So there was Core Lead in me!

In her brain her voice was loud, she didn't know if they could hear it ya know, outside.

She turned her internal vision to the growing black space, so large now it occupied most of her sight. It the time of her horrible emotional absence she had let it grow. This was the Lead threatening to swallow her. She could feel two options here. She could let the colors go, and turn her world white. She could walk away from the colors and run from the black.

But Jack had told her to pull the energy back with her.

The black space felt like a black hole, it had a gravity that pulled like nothing she had ever felt. She didn't want to let go of the colors, of all the emotions. She wouldn't.

Latching onto the emotions and the energy she began to withdraw her mind from the Lead's pull. It was less like walking or running and much more like swimming.

She was fighting. If only she hadn't let the black get so big! There was only a small amount of color in her eyes left, and she was rushing to get to it. They black was on all sides but one…

Jack felt something vice onto his hand. He tried to pull back but the grip was too strong. The grip!

Mim's hand was clasping his own and he wanted to shout. He looked at the lead and saw that it was just black now. No energy.

"Team, go go go! Get it out of her now!" Claire shouted to her medics as soon as she noticed Jack's look of overjoyed giddiness.

In the time it took to whoop and rejoice, the Lead was out, washed and sitting on a silver metal tray, which was quickly covered up and sealed.

"Snowflake! Mim! You did it! You can release the energy now, it's not going anywhere." he kissed the knuckle on her hand as he felt warmth come back to her fingertips. Normally he would hug her and chill her, but now the warmth was the best sign in the universe.

She exhaled audibly and everyone stepped back again as rainbow light and energy began to swirl around the abscess in her stomach. All the joy, all the worry, all the hope and triumphant feelings had been sent to her as it would before she lost control, but now all that energy shook through her cells and by the time Jack wasn't blinking back the blinding light, Mim was sitting up, healed, stomach closed saved for a jagged discoloration.

And then she was hugging him.

Then she was kissing him.

The Medics looked away awkwardly.

The Guardians shoved back the curtain and enveloped their youngest member in a group hug. Bunny poked her stomach as a jest and she winced.

"Still a bit sore kangaroo!" she returned the favor with a sharp elbow.


	34. Chapter 34

34-Gathering our Forces

All currently available Descendants were gathered in the Main Cavern. Vincent, the Beck brothers, and a couple of Tracey's pack were currently tracking Colin, giving regular updates on his position.

Lupine had also been spotted, which didn't help Jackie's nerves, neither was Taboo's constant growling. The ice tiger was looking forward to tangling with them again.

Currently Jackie and Jason were the only ones fully kitted out in armour and with weapons. Jackie wasn't sure whether she'd get used to weight of the staff on her back, but decided to ignore it for now.

The other three Heads, the Medic team and Holly were all sitting out of this. They needed someone to man the fort, the Medic's were tired, and Holly was not suitable for this kind of thing, since they already had their eye on Colin.

"So." Jason said into the cavern, decked out in red armour with a downwards pointing longsword intertwined with a 'H' where Jackie's snowflake was. "We only have a group of four outside of myself and Jackie, along with the six already in the field. Anyone have any other suggestions?"

"The Burgess Branch." Billy spoke up immediately, standing alongside Sam, Mitchell and Richard. "They'll want to be in on this."

"Jackie, I believe that is your jurisdiction."

"I'll give Nigel a call." Confirmed Jackie, adding that up to fifteen. "Anyone else?"

"We could wait for dad and Adam to get back." Suggested Sam, who Billy scowled at and Jackie shot him a meaningful look.

"We haven't really heard from them since they went down into the tunnels." Mentioned Alexander, then right on cue the radio, which had been dragged out of the Council Chamber, let out a piercing ship's whistle.

Taboo flinched as Alexander went to answer. "Why do we have that?" She asked.

Well, at least we know when someone's trying to contact us via radio.

"But it's soooo loud!"

It would defeat the purpose if it wasn't.

Taboo very maturely stuck her tongue out at Jackie as Alexander took the call.

"Alexander." He nodded. "Uh huh, where are you? Right." He was struggling not to smirk. "Yes, make your way back to the base please, feel free to bring the Yetis."

He got off the radio and started sniggering to himself.

"Alexander?" Asked Jason, not amused.

"Sorry, Adam and David just got out of the tunnels, they've down there for hours and didn't find anything!"

Jackie had to hold in a smirk as Billy openly burst out laughing.

"So, they were just walkin', fer hours? With nothing?" Billy laughed. "While down 'ere, everything's been happening!"

"Such a bad case of timing." Said Sam, and the two siblings cracked up.

Holly was also smirking, but couldn't seem to be able to come up with anything, so was just content to laugh.

"Alright, alright. That's enough of that." said Jason, not even having cracked a smile.

"Come on, you've got to admit it's funny." Said Jackie, and Jason just fixed her with a stare.

"Not really." He said, and Jackie sighed.

"And grumpy pants is back." She muttered under her breath, thankfully out of Jason's hearing. Although he did send her an odd look when Taboo starting sniggering.

"Okay, so, have we any more advances on who to go?" He asked the crowd, and there was no response.

"Alright then. Everyone going should put on armour and collect weapons. I will wait for David and Adam to return to see if they want to go. Jackie, contact your Branch. I want everyone back here in less than half an hour. Understood?"

"Sir yes sir!" the small group cried, saluting, and then they dispersed to the Sleeping Quarters.

Jackie went into the Council Chamber to get a little privacy to call her Branch. First on the list was Nigel.

"Hello Jackie! Been busy I hear."

"You could say that Nigel." Jackie smiled. The old man never failed to put a smile on her face. "Everyone's mobilising down here, wanted to know if you wanted in."

"Full armour and weapons?"

"Yeah, it's against one Descendant and one immortal, but both are dangerous, we're not taking any chances."

Nigel snorted. "Like that's ever stopped you. I'm on my way down. Shall I contact the others?"

"Billy's already down here, and I can call the others."

"Good good, see you later!"

Next on the call list was Tina.

"Jackie!" The Descendant of Toothiana cried. "How have you been? I've been hearing all sorts of stories, you know if you wanted to go to Paris you should have just said."

Jackie chuckled. "It's a long story, but can you make it to the base? We've got a fight on our hands."

"Isn't that always the case with you?" Asked Tina, then she chuckled. "Never mind. Sally and I will be down there shortly."

"Full armour and weapons if you would."

"Naturally, naturally. And for heavens sake tell Jamie, the poor boy's going mad."

"Sure he is." Tina had the habit of exaggerating sometimes.

"Okay, not mad, but he's worried."

"Okay okay, I'll call him, I'll call him." Jackie assured.

"Good. And you know, I shouldn't have to tell you these things."

"Sorry, I get a bit wrapped up."

"We know. It's always work work work with you."

"I'm sorry that I care about what I do."

"You're twenty six! You should be going out, going to parties, getting drunk. Going clubbing, something!"

"You know my opinions on that." Said Jackie tersely.

"Well, you can't say that we didn't try. See you later."

Tina hung up and Jackie rubbed the bridge of her nose. She liked Tina, but sometimes she didn't know what went through that woman's head.

Final call.

"Jamie."

"Hey Jackie! How are you doing?"

"Final stretch I think. If things go to plan, I'll be back by this evening."

"Big battle?"

"Maybe."

"You know, an extra sword-"

"You're not coming. Jack would kill me. He still doesn't know that you train with us."

"Are you ever planning on telling him?"

"Never seems to be the right time. Maybe when this is over I'll tell him."

"Sure you will." Jackie could practically hear him rolling his eyes. "Well, you know where to find me if you do change your mind."

"Noted. Love you."

"Love you too."

Jackie put the phone down on the table, and after a few seconds decided to leave it there, it was going to be alright.

"Time to see what the Guardians are up to." Said Jackie to Taboo, moving out of the Council Chamber and into the more or less empty Main Cavern.

"Well, if Mim's up and about, then we can at least say hi before jumping into business."

"All of this is business."

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that. Jack's an exception, but the others are slowly becoming your friends." Taboo teased.

"That's a bit far, I barely know them."

"You went globe trotting with them!"

"Still business."

Taboo shook her head. "Jackie, you really are clueless about this kind of thing aren't you?"

"What? What kind of thing?"

"If you don't know I can't tell you." Said Taboo in a sing song voice.

"Taboo!"

Taboo chuckled and bounded out of Jackie's range before the Descendant could zap her, still laughing.

Jackie sighed and shook her head, following her ice tiger before she got into trouble. Moon help them if Mim's parents found her.

Jack had not stopped hugging Mim ever since she had woken up. She had regaled her tail end of the recent events. North was especially intrigued on her perception of color. But Tooth had reminded them of the task at hand.

"Toothie is right. Ve must prepare. Mim I assume you can fight?"

"No." Jack said flatly pulling Mim ever closer, like a stuffed toy he didn't want to let go of. Mim lovingly extracted herself.

"Heck yeah I can fight!" MiM made sure of that. The scar on her stomach was fading, although Claire assured some remnant of the gash would always be present.

"No you can't you need to recover!" Jack picked her up by the waist and sat her down on the couch in the Main Cavern. She heated up her skin and he dropped her giving her rueful look as he frosted his hands to cool them down.

"Not nice, snowflake." he said.

She kissed him to make amends, but gave him a look that said, "try and stop me."

The six Guardians took time to get themselves together. Mim synthesized her armor and Shifted her bracelets a few times, ensuring herself that she could do it quickly. They gave her some room as she tested her emotional spectrum. Going from fire to ice and a multitude of animals, she took a deep breath and let it out.

Jack looked at her with worry, but pride, and her eyes flashed, as she winked.

With a little stop at the Pole, which the Guardians admitted was weird, since they had been basically laying over at the HOG headquarters.

Mim helped Tooth bathe her wings in a potion that would fortify them against tearing and ripping. HOG lent Toothiana a set of swords since her own ancient and personal ones were at Tooth Palace and North didn't want them scattering themselves thin.

North had been wearing one of his many coats. Like the rest it was red, but this one was fire repellent. He always carried his swords with him so he was already armed. Jason was itching to get a good look at the stardust forged swords. Stardust was even more rare than meteor metal, while they did more or less the same thing, stardust was still better. The Guardians each had something made if it. Mim herself had an arrow, but she hardly used it.

Bunny had affixed his guarders on his arms and wrapped fresh leather around his feet, er paws.

As Bunny sat sharpening his boomerangs, Jack was arguing with Mimic.

Jackie laughed at this with her Branch. A couple that loved each other like crazy, where one had just returned from comatose, was bickering already.

"C'mon Jack, you know it's smart." Mim was chasing him up the walls and across the ceiling by sticking to them like spiderman, but when Jack took to the airspace in the massive cavern, she sighed.

"Why. You're fighting like normal." Jack was pouting like he did when he didn't have a real argument.

"I'm still wearing armor. If we were fighting a villain without fire, then I wouldn't ask." Mim was holding a standard issue HOG chestplate for the Descendants of Jack Frost, so was better suited to keeping Jack's temperature constant.

"Don't make me do it!" she warned. Jack still refused. Mim dropped the chestplate which clattered and stopped her spiderman powers. She was running at super speed and took a flying leap, where she snatched his staff from his grip. He tried to hold tight…

In a moment she was on the ground and he was in the air with no staff. For a second he looked down, the next second, he went down.

"Ahhhhh!" he yelled.

Bunny caught the winter spirit and set him on the ground.

"Ye better listen mate, we don't need any injuries." Bunny remarked.

Mim was already two steps ahead, using a phasing power she yanked his hoodie off, through him. But then again, only a mimitation. After she had fastened the chestplate on her boyfriend with him squirming all the while, he was so ticklish, she put the hoodie back on him only to find a rip in the pocket.

"You need to work on that power!" he was trying to act angry but she was still tickling him. "And you're going to fix that!" he said laughing on the ground.

Sandy had asked for a weapon to hold onto if his sand wasn't being affective. Samson wheeled up with a Sandy sized axe.

"Where did you find that?" Tooth marvelled flitting around it.

"We keep a few in stock, for some of my smaller relatives." Samson explained.

Once the Guardians were in their prime state, which the Descendants had to admit looked impressive, and made them proud of their heritage, everyone packed up to head out.

Tooth was going to fly in with an airstrike from the sleigh. Bunny was leading a few of his crew in an attack from below. Sandy was pushing the front infantry with North. Jack was called on to make the weather a horror for anyone wishing to interfere, as well as using the cold to weaken Colin.

Mim was put in the airstrike, but they were counting on her be packing some serious power.

A few Descendants were scattered in. Richard, Billy and the Osbournes were in. So were the Becks and Jackie, who were with Jack in creating a frigid environment. Finally Jason, Mitchell and the other three from Jackie's Branch; Nigel, Tina and Sally, were being put in.

Claire herself even plucked up and said she wanted to go out in the field and she was quickly in purple armour with her Head sabre, the Barbary. She had provided something that had made Tooth squeak in happiness. Claire had commissioned for the forging of five sets if fairy armor. There were only five, so Tooth picked five of her trusted fairies to don it and after a the proper amount of admiration, they flew in formation to stand with their mother.

"This is our plan for when we find Colin and Lupine." Jason set his notes down on the subject.

Mim walked over to him and smacked him on the back, good naturedly. Jackie had found that Mim enjoyed messing with Jason's uptight personality.

"Do we even know where he is?" She said, as if she had waited until he was all strapping to go to tell him this.

Jason looked like he wanted to bang his head on the table. His visor and helmet made it difficult.


	35. Chapter 35

35-Battle Preparation

After all the build up of getting into armour and weaponizing, and dividing into strike teams, everyone ended up sitting down and chatting as they scanned the globe through various Branches to get a read on Colin's location.

"So you guys are…" Mim was looking at the Osbournes.

"This is the Osbourne family." Jackie introduced, although she was sitting with Billy and the Burgess Branch.

"I am David." Said the patriarch of the family, with his dark blonde hair heavily streaked with grey.

"Adam." Said the one leaning back on the ground of the Records Room, looking relaxed with his brown hair flopping slightly into his brown eyes.

"Sam." The youngest and only girl in the Osbourne clan nodded to Mim. "And that clown over there is Billy." she added, pointing over to him.

"I heard that!"

Jackie rolled her eyes, you'd think that with the youngest being in their thirties the Osbourne family would be more mature. This was not even close to the case.

The only one in the Osbourne family to have met any of the Guardians was Billy, so the other three were silently making notes about Mim.

Sam liked the look of her, she seemed like the sort of person she'd get along with, if she wasn't a Guardian, such as thing otherwise was near unthinkable for someone who'd been in HOG all their lives.

Adam was indifferent. A Guardian was a Guardian and there was obviously a good reason, who was he to judge?

David didn't like how she was dressed, other than that he shared the same opinion as Adam.

"Interesting…" Mim responded. She like talking to all the Descendants and learning about them. She was also a little curious about who Jackie was talking with. There were five of them in total, plus Taboo. Billy she already knew from the tunnels, then there was an older looking man in red armour, with not much hair, stubble and a set of very impressive eyebrows. Then there was a tall woman in purple armour, whose age was difficult to tell, she held herself very properly and was probably fashionably dressed underneath the armour. That sounded like the last person Jackie would get along with, but the two were talking and laughing like old friends. Last was a small woman in yellow armour, with blonde hair with one part in a braid, while the rest was loose. She didn't seem to be saying much, but whenever she did the group laughed.

"So." Said Billy, suddenly throwing his arms around as many of the group as he could. "Who's up for some action, like old times!"

"You know we're going out in teams right? Not by Branch." Said Jackie.

Billy pouted. "Aw come on! How long has it been since we properly fought alongside each other? Melbourne doesn't count."

"Lupine." Said Sally, the Descendant of Sandman in the group, and everyone in the group winced.

"Not the best memory." Said Nigel, the Descendant of North.

"It finished... alright." Said Jackie, who still cringed at that particular memory.

The final member, Tina, gave Jackie a good natured shove. "You left the party! After all of that effort it took to get you back down here after that!"

Billy laughed. "Ah man, Lupine, no problem. As soon as a party was mentioned your face went as white as a sheet!"

"Jackie has odd priorities." Confirmed Sally, grinning as their youngest member's face went bright red.

"Come on you guys! That was ages ago, can you stop hanging it over my head?"

"Nah, it's too funny kiddo." Billy ruffled the top of Jackie's head, to which she scowled and flattened her hair back down.

"Wish I was there to see it." Added Taboo, who was a little left out of this conversation.

"If you had been you'd have dragged me back no doubt." Said Jackie drily.

"...Yeah, that's sounds about right."

The rest of the Branch were used to the one sided conversations, so just shrugged at each other.

At that moment a group of Descendants stumbled in covered with soot and with clothing singed in the corners. James and Jacob Beck looked like shadows they were so covered and the others looked like dalmatian dogs, covered in spots of black and gray.

With them were two members of Tracey's pack. Tracey had left HQ a while back to tend to pack matters, so everyone wondered what these two were doing here.

"Vincent! What happened to you?!" Called Billy. "You look like you just attacked by a fire dog!"

"Funny, Billy." Growled Vincent. "Don't give up the day job."

Jackie gave Billy an amused nudge before going over to the Beck Twins and Jason went to the Descendants of Lupine while Vincent sat down next to his family.

"So, what did happen?" Jackie asked.

"Well, we followed him for ages." Said James.

"Could only just keep up really, he was on these roller blades and Vincent and the wolf guys were like speedsters!" Added Jacob.

"And the guy's spitting fire all over the place! Pretty sure he left a burnt trail."

"That's why we look like this."

"And you're here and not still chasing him, because?" Prompted Jackie.

"Lupine showed up." Said James.

"Practically out of nowhere, really freaked the wolf guys out." Added Jacob.

"Could have got our asses handed to us, so we had to book it."

"Okay, where were you when that happened?"

"Round about the edge of the Appalachian Mountains."

"Appalachia, got it. Man, that guy can travel, he crossed half the State." Jackie looked over at Jason as he looked over at her, and in a rare moment of understanding, they realised that they were more or less on the same page.

Jason addressed the rest of the group. "Colin was last seen in Dalton, so we're heading there now. Adam, can you open a Tunnel there?"

Bunnymund looked a little annoyed and confused that Jason didn't immediately think of him when it came to Tunnels.

"We all know our positions. I will be on the ground to attempt some kind of peaceful conclusion, however, that kind of conclusion is not likely." Jason looked to the returned Descendants. "Are you coming?"

Jackie felt a lot of relief as the three HOG Descendants nodded. James and Jacob would be a great asset in keeping the weather under control. While she didn't doubt Jack's ability, she did doubt her own. The last time she tried to control the weather she'd passed out after five minutes.

Yeah, that had been seven years ago, but still.

"Jackie?" Jason got her out of her thoughts. "Ready?"

"Let's go."

Tina and Claire were going to go with Toothiana and Mim to be part of the air strike. Sally, Mitchell, Nigel and Jason were going to be on the ground with North and Sandy. The Osbournes were going to be underground with Bunnymund. Which of course left Jack, Jackie, James and Jacob to handle the weather conditions.

The Descendants of Lupine point blank refused to go back if Lupine was going to be in the area.

"It's suicide." They said.


	36. Chapter 36

36-Fly By

Tooth was perfectly capable of flying on her own, as was Claire, Tina, Mim and her fairies, however Claire, Tina and Mim were not accustomed to constantly being airborne and the endurance involved, despite Claire and Tina's genetics, would wear down in the course of battle.

So North had given her the sleigh to pilot into battle.

The reindeer were quite unruly, and stubborn, kind of like North, which Mim laughed at profusely. Controlling them was a handful, and it took both Tooth and Mim to steer, seeing as neither of them was particularly hefty in the brawn section.

Even with the two Guardians piloting, the two Descendants got bumped around a bit.

"With all due respect Your Majesty and Miss Mimic, this is a-a bit uncomfortable." Claire was rattling along in the sleigh, trying to grab to the polished wooden sides for stability. Tina just stared at Claire, did the Head just complain?

"My goodness, you are human after all." Tina muttered.

"Please! Call me Mim. Your Majesty? Tooth I know you're technically a queen, but sheesh!" Mimic said as she pulled in the reins. The leading reindeer had no concept of straight flying did they?

"Believe me." The phrase a was a joke to the Guardians, "We try to get her call me at least Toothiana, but she adheres to protocol like that magic glue Jack used to stick Bunny to an egg golem."

They laughed at the memory. Claire raised an eyebrow, and Tina just looked confused but decided she didn't want to know. Having Billy and Jackie has Branch mates led to similar, interesting, circumstances.

Looking over the edge from the driver's seat, Mim could see the ground whooshing by underneath her. She liked to watch it go by when North was driving, but the jolting made her sometimes question which way was up.

At one point Tooth couldn't decide whether to fly above or below a cloud, and they ended up doing a twisted loop-de-loop in the cloud. They emerged wet and cold, with the mini-fairies huddling in a corner shivering.

"Pretty ch-ch-chilly." Claire said genially. Metal armor is a great conductor of heat...and cold. Tina smirked, the Head's armour, other than Jackie's, was usually more for show, so didn't have the tempering that allowed the wearer to stay at normal body temperature, so Tina was fine. The other difference lay in the symbols, both Tina and Claire had a canine tooth, but Claire's had a capital 'H' with it as well.

"I think I know why." Mim said a smile burgeoning on her lips. Her eyes flashed a happy yellow before turning light blue, settling on the figure flying through the sky, swirling up a storm.

Mim flew out of the sleigh to deliver a cute pre-battle hug to her icy boyfriend. Jack noticed she was shivering in the high speed winds and snowflakes dotted her hair in the way he loved.

"Go winter Mim! Stop shivering it makes me sad." He hugged her back.

"Do you want me to fall out of the sky? It's a mimitation, I can't fly in winter form." she kissed his nose and flew back to the sleigh.

"So, how long have you and Jack been together?" Tina asked to make conversation as they began to descend.

"Since before my immortality." Mim answered, "Several years."

The bunch of them flew down to land on a cliff side in the Appalachian Mountains. Jack was nothing more than a speck in the sky, but Jacob, James, and Jackie were all on the ground, sending winter magic into the sky. The snow was now falling in earnest.

"A little more to the left." Said Jackie. The trio were moving in close synchronisation, controlling the fall of snow and shooting some of their own into the sky to fall.

Making and controlling snow clouds was out of the question for them, the strain would kill them, so they let Jack handle that part.

At their feet was a sheet of ice, which they were using to keep track of each other's movements, that's how they were so synchronised. For extra concentration Jackie had drawn Istapp, and was using it as a sort of meditation tool as she moved, also using it to enhance what she was doing, similar, but at the same time completely different to how Jack does it.

Taboo watched from the sidelines as one they stepped left, and the surrounding snow shifted with them, sending some snowfall out towards their left, almost on the other side of the mountains. Their hands moved and rolled with the pattern of the snowfall, each one keeping a watchful 'eye' on it's progress.

If they had the time, they could use the snow that now covered the mountains to 'see' where things were, and no doubt find Colin, however their current task was tiring enough and demanded full attention.

Sweat beaded and froze on their foreheads, and Jack flew down to check on how they were doing.

"You guys okay?"

"Fine." Said Jackie, not opening her eyes. "You keep that storm going."

"Okay, but don't over do it! I know what you're like Jackie."

Jackie smiled, "I know. I think Taboo might have something to say if I did though."

"Too right." Said Taboo. "The second phrase out of my mouth would probably be, 'stop doing that!'"

"Hilarious." Jackie wasn't really in the mood for Taboo's sense of humour.

"We'll be fine." Insisted James, closing the subject.

"If you say so." Jack took off into the air again. While it didn't always seem like it, Jack was easily more powerful than the three Descendants, however, all of them had learnt their powers differently and therefore used them differently. When Jack had first met Jackie, he discovered that she's never even considered using something as a conduit.

He flew around the grey storm clouds, occasionally focusing to make sure they didn't fly off elsewhere. He grinned and formed more snowflakes along with the already falling mass, dancing among them. It may have been a mission, but there was no reason that he couldn't have a little fun, right?

Bunny's crew was on the ground. While North and Sandy actually had the ground squad, Bunny stayed on the surface to ensure he knew what was happening. His team was a few meters under, mapping the mountain. Someone had offered to keep watch but Bunny had declined.

He respected these people, but he needed to keep his frame of mind solid. No matter how much training these skilled soldiers had, Bunny knew he had seen more battles than 'em all combined.

Hopping below the ground he saw the chamber he had made for the team.

"Tell me what ya know." he said. The 6 present members all rose and faced him, strong shoulders and serious looks. All five Osbournes plus Richard were present.

"The mountain closest to us is also the tallest in the area, a strong vantage point." Billy Osbourne said.

"And?" Adam countered. He loved trying to show 'im up in front of their ancestor. Billy looked like he wanted to strangle his brother, but the critical green eyes shut them up.

"No fightin'. We need to been on point for today. But yer brother's got a point. And?" Bunny pressed for information. He had only seen things topside and no matter how much he hated to admit it, he needed them to tell him what was going on.

"The terrain is tricky." Sam conceded, "So getting to each other will take time."

"Hopefully not too much time." Bunny said. He could tunnel quick and efficiently, and his tunnels closed behind him, but theirs didn't.

"We don't want to tunnel all over the mountain, it'll collapse." one of the Osbournes had said earlier. Bunny was unsure which one. That family managed to breed, like well...rabbits.

As the underground attack team discussed tactics, the ground teams was getting itself organized from a motley bunch into a formatted squadron. Sandy had put his two Descendants in a sort of "V" shape with him on a sand horse in point position. The goal was that while North and Sandy engages Colin head on, the Descendants would flank him and block his escape. All the sand manipulators had to be able to contain him.

A last ditch effort was to encase him in sand and let his body fuse it into glass. It would at least give them time to regroup. But only Sandy could give that command.

North had the smallest group, only Nigel, the Burgess Branch leader, was with him on the ground. He also had Jason, but he wasn't with him. Jason was on the actual mountain, standing out a little with his red armour and the long sword 'Moonstroke' at his waist. He had climbed up immediately after being dropped off by Bunny, despite being roughly sixty. Using ice picks and rope he had scaled the side that faced the mountain rain.

He was placing explosive packs all over the rocks. Some went on sheer cliffs, others sat on ledges. Those were supposed to create boulder-slides when detonated.

The rest went on steeply angled mountainsides.

These were risky, Jason knew that. Jack himself had even advised against them, but Jason was ever prepared for every contingency. As the Jack and his Descendants covered the mountain in snow and ice, the remotely controlled explosives would be buried.

If needed they could cause an avalanche that would cover them all, and anything in a 10 mile radius.

As aforementioned, it was risky.

Mim looked down once more from the sleigh. They were nearing the ground now. She could see everyone. She saw North look up, and even from this height she could see his big bushy eyebrows raised in inquisition. Bunny popped up a thumbs up from his hole. Sandy gave a thumbs up from the ground.

Mim looked over her shoulder, where Tooth gave her a thumbs up from the reins, before rushing to use both hands once more.

Switching to the other side of the sleigh, she whizzed past Jack and his Descendants who all gave the thumbs up.

This was it. This was the moment where roller coaster had reached the top. Any second it would crash down in an uncontrollable rush. Once she did this, there would be no strategy change, and no peace.

Laughing herself from the sleigh, she ascended to the sky where she concentrated her anger.

She turned inward, where all the rage screamed and clawed. Her eyes turned red, red like blood. Then the blood began to boil, and then to burn.

She released a ring of fire into the air.

Now all the teams knew that everyone was ready. Colin also knew she was here, and that she alive, and angrier than him. The countdown to chaos, and to battle had started ticking.


	37. Chapter 37

37-Set Fire to the Snow

Colin started as fire spread across the sky, and the hands he'd shoved into his pockets to keep out the cold started to smoke.

"She still has it." He growled, breathing out clouds of water vapour. His plan had been perfect, it should have succeeded. Why hadn't it?!

Lupine, nearby, sniffed the snow filled air, and growled when he couldn't get a scent.

"It does not look good." Lupine also growled. "This can only be a Guardian's work."

"And Descendants will not be far behind." Said Colin. "You'll still get your prey no doubt."

"With or without you pup, this failed long ago!" He snarled.

"It's not over yet!" Yelled Colin. "No doubt my aunt will want to face me alone, let her! Things can still be turned around."

He drew his hand out of his pocket, still smoking as snow swirled around it, melting in the air around the hand.

"If Mimic wants a fight, then a fight she'll have!" Colin raised his fist to the sky and fired off a blast of fire while Lupine snarled.

"Are you crazy?!"

"Relax, if you and your shadows stay, we're more likely to win."

"That maybe so, but if this goes sour I'm out."

"Without your precious prey?" Mocked Colin.

"Davies will not come near you, I can still collect my fee as your sorry behind gets beaten." Lupine lifted his nose to the sky and pricked his ears. "They're on their way."

"Good." Colin grinned, feeling the anger at his aunt bubbling in his chest. "Very good."

Jason felt and saw both fire explosions from his position on the mountain. The first he could clearly see had come from the sleigh, the other from deep in the woods. That had to be where Colin was.

His hands were a little full holding onto the mountain, so after muttering a hovering spell, he let go, and hung in the air.

While his skill with a sword was decent, it was Jason's skill with magic that made him a Head. It probably wasn't as good as North's, as he had had several centuries to practice, but for a man in his sixties who's been practicing for as long as he could remember, he was pretty good.

He reached under his armour and pulled out a purple sphere the size of a marble. It seemed to be made out of glass and the purple colour swirled beneath the surface like smoke. Another recent invention, North had his snowglobes, HOG had Smokes.

Jason's mouth was set into a determined line as he threw the Smoke down, his figure quickly becoming swallowed by a plume of purple smoke.

He would try to talk some reason into Colin, whether the boy had to be restrained first was neither here nor there.

Tooth had tossed the reins to Claire, who was doing her best to control the skyrunning animals while Tina tried to offer advice from the back. Tooth had taken to wing, and with her team of armored fairies, went down to a few feet above ground. Mim's fire ring had tempted a similar signal out of Colin, and now they had his rough position.

Twisting under a branch and then between a copse of leaves, she squinted her violet eyes into the shade of the trees. She had flown into the forest with the intent of drawing Colin out. She needed to get him out of the woods and onto the battlefield for their plan to work.

Stopping when she felt rustling, she felt her feathers stand on end.

Tooth turned to the birds in the trees, and translating in every species, breed and dialect, asked the birds to sing as loud as they could.

The resulting cacophony made the mini-fairies cover their ears. Robins, quails, bluebirds, scarlet tangers and woodpeckers all tweeting and hammering. Tooth winced, but couldn't afford to be debilitated.

The noise would be bound to set off Colin's hair trigger temper.

She waited.

And waited, listening with all her might. There had to be a sign somewhere. Soon the birds quieted, and even began to flee.

She turned to watch them fly to the light outside the canopy of leaves only to turn and feel her eyes widen.

Mim had launched out of the sleigh as well. She only had to go halfway down to the ground before the ground crew met her, well not exactly.

The air strike needed projectiles, and so the Osbournes and Richard were launching up rocks the size of potatoes and footballs up to her. She would them ferry them up to the sleigh. As this process was repeated over and over, Mim saw her hair falling into her eyes.

She loved to wear her hair down, but now she had to use one of her bracelets as an elastic to hold it back. This was a slight irritation since now she only had one bracelet to work with...Ugh…

As she caught a fist sized rock that had whizzed to her head, she chucked it back down, satisfied to have seen it hit Billy's foot. He hopped up and down for a second. He couldn't earthbend, so he couldn't retaliate. Now he was mad at Vincent. Oh, how she loved siblings.

But Vincent never got to shoot back.

All eyes had turned to the woods.

Jack was on the mountain with his Descendants. They had made a series of slides down the mountain, that they could use for a quick escape but getting back up would be a pain, ice or no. The snow in the sky was falling gray.

Jackie's nose picked up the scent of smoke and her heart began to race. James and Jacob Beck both followed her terrified face to the woods. Smoke was rising in a black mass from the deepest section of the wood. Between the wisps of thick and rancid air, she could see the flicker of fire.

Colin had set the forest ablaze!

Jack was frowning. He pulled up his hood to protect his face, and he called the wind up around him, so that it both lifted him, but also blew the suffocating smoke away from his mouth and nose.

Mim saw the blaze from the air. So he was going to play a game like that? Distract them. Well, he was going to have to try harder, the infantry held the mountain, and Claire held the air, although from what she knew of the strength of his fire, he could not propel himself more than a few feet off the ground

She changed from fairy wings to angel wings, black to match the smoke, but Jack's loyal wind met her full brunt force. The headwind was so strong up here, that she was blown backwards.

"Stay here!" Jack had the wind curving around him, and he was a meter or so ahead. She tried to press but he forced her back.

"You should stay here. I'll go! But if he makes it here, North and Sandy can't handle him alone. Tooth is down there!" his hood was up and Mim moved her hands from face to look him full in the face. The stinging wind brought tears to her eyes that froze.

"It is a furnace down there! He will toast you alive!" Mim had to scream over the gales and every inhale was shoved prematurely in her lungs was her mouth caught the gusts of air.

"I've got that chestplate you shoved on me." he reminded her. She was struggling to remain airborne but he didn't seem to notice. She wanted to tell him that it wasn't enough, but he had turned away. With one final push of her wings, she tried to stop him, but her work was fruitless, and she only felt the blue fabric of his hoodie slip from her hand. The wind vanished with him and she felt the split second of weightlessness before the fall. The feeling didn't last as she stabilized herself. But she ventured as close to the woods as she thought Jack would allow.

Tooth was in there. So was Jack and she saw a figure in pale blue armour, flanked by a white, four legged creature sliding down the mountain.

Jackie.

Jackie was pretty sure that she'd gone barking mad. Taboo certainly seemed to think so.

Instead of doing the sensible thing and staying on the mountain out of the insane fire, she was heading towards it.

Why? She wasn't one to turn down a fight, especially a rematch. And, now she was in armour, the fire couldn't harm her.

She'd left the Beck twins on the mountain to keep an eye on the weather, since she'd long since guessed that Jack would be in there. If it was for the reason she suspected, then it wouldn't surprise her.

Taboo was running alongside her down the mountain, but once the burning forest came into view the ice tiger skidded to a halt.

"You know, I think I'll go join the ground team, and I suggest you do if you're desperate for a fight."

"Says you, the blood thirsty one. It'll be fine. I need to see."

"Your funeral." Taboo ran off and Jackie continued.

As she reached the burning woods she was starting to regret the whole thing. Smoke was pouring out, reaching her through the helmet and making it difficult to breathe. She coughed and continued, determined to at least get in. Her Branch was down here somewhere and she'd be damned if they were fighting without her!

"What are you doing in here?!" Jack flew down, his hood pulled down over his face.

"I could ask you the same thing!" Cried Jackie, trying not to cough in the acrid smoke."You're not exactly in armour!"

"I've got a chestplate!"

Jackie shook her head. "Never mind. Let's keep going." Without waiting to see if Jack was following, Jackie ran into the burning forest.

And quickly began to regret it.

She could still feel the heat despite the armour as flames leapt from tree to tree, and as much as she never admit it, she was shaking with fear. This looked too much like a nightmare.

A tree creaked and Jackie ran forward as the whole thing collapsed and fell down with a crash, sending up more sparks into the air. So there went that retreat.

Her heart was pounding so hard that she was surprised that it wasn't hitting her chestplate. Her breathing sounded too loud in her ears. She was scared.

She was starting to hear shouting, and jogged over towards the noise, the smoke making it difficult to run properly. Not to mention that her legs were shaking so much that running would have been difficult anyway.

She reached the centre of the fire. The entire clearing was blackened and dead, no longer burning because there was nothing left to burn.

In the centre stood Colin, smoking almost dangerously, with some of the white tips of his hair having been burnt black.

In front of him, oddly, was Jason.

He looked fine, his armour was intact, his sword was still sheathed, but through the visor Jackie could see the expression of sheer shock on his face.

"What?" The older man breathed, almost unheard in the crackling flames, but it somehow still carried.

"You heard old timer, I, don't, want, it. Yeah, I'll probably get exiled, you think I care?!"

"And you thought that putting lead in your ancestor would stop it? Would stop you having powers?" Jason's expression and tone had changed from shock to disbelief.

"By moon you're slow, yes! It gets rid of powers, and I haven't been born yet! Therefore, if she doesn't have powers, I won't have powers!"

Jason almost looked regretful, like he didn't want to say what he was about to say.

"I must admit, your plan so far as been good, bordering on brilliance, but that, that was stupid."

"I know it didn't work! But it worked for a bit, maybe that'll be enough!"

"It was never going to work."

Colin looked at him. "What?" His voice was calm, dangerously calm.

"It's too late. The genetics have been in the line for nearly a decade, you went to the wrong time. Your plan was doomed to fail." Jason's hand went to Moonstroke in preparation. "It was all for nothing."

Colin looked shocked, looking around at Jason, Lupine in the trees and Jackie on the edge of the clearing.

"I-I don't believe you." Gone was the cockiness, now he was unsure, possibly even scared.

"Time is a difficult thing to change. You went to the wrong time. You failed, and would always have failed. The lead doesn't work like that." Jason insisted, his voice calm, as if he was reading out the weather.

If anything Colin started smoking even more, shaking with fury, causing everyone in the clearing to take a step back.

"Y-you, you, I…" Coherent speech seemed to be beyond him as his fists spontaneously combusted.

He looked Jason straight in the eye, a gaze so angry that Jason took another step back, pulling Moonstroke slightly out of its scabbard. The metal glowed and reflected the flames behind Jason.

Colin started shaking even more, almost vibrating with anger.

There was nothing left on the ground to burn, so parts of trees that had somehow escaped the blaze burst into flame. Even Lupine's fur started to singe as Colin's hair also started catching on fire.

The wolf finally broke, seeing that this was going nowhere. He took a step back, then disappeared into the shadows, although Jackie highly doubted he was gone for good.

"I'll kill you."

The phrase was so quiet Jackie and Jason weren't entirely sure they'd heard it at all.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Colin roared and charged at Jason with wild abandon, his hockey stick out and blazing.

Jason drew Moonstroke and easily parried the strike, reaching up with his foot to do a push kick, pushing Colin away.

"It's not me that you want to pick a fight with." Jason still sounded calm, almost like he and Claire had swapped roles for the day.

"You'll die easier!" Colin attacked again, but Jason blocked and shoved him away again with the flat of the blade.

"Perhaps, but killing me isn't going to solve anything."

Colin's anger only seemed to grow, but he realised that he couldn't get through the old man's defences. He'd also completely forgotten that Jackie was there.

More of his body started bursting into flame, his combats, his backpack, even parts of his skin, although they left no burns.

Finally, it was as if his body couldn't take anymore, and fire exploded from him.

Both Descendants instinctively covered their faces as fire raged past them, and they could feel parts of their skin crisping despite the armour.

Once the fire had cleared Colin was gone, leaving flaming footprints in his wake.


	38. Chapter 38

38-Fire Starter

Mim was back in the sleigh, surveying the fire from above. The snow was doing nothing to dampen it, and there was no lake near, not a river, not even a stream to quench the blaze. Even from here she could feel its heat brushing against her cheeks, making them turn red, even redder than the cold.

She saw nothing.

Mim bit her lip against the oncoming wave of worry, or stress, or something!

She couldn't be lost to the colors now. People needed her here and now, and she did not feel like swimming her way to the surface of herself to fight. She set her jaw and waited for Jack to emerge from the smoking ruins of the wooden cage.

She saw a black figure darting around the base of the mountain. She could not tell what it was though. Turning into a hawk the circled above. Lupine was alone, and running to the battlefield, why she could not determine.

Humanizing once more, she took her other bracelet and blew into it as a horn. The drone of the horn rang out over the infantry and the ground squad. One...Two...Three…

Three blasts!

North heard the alert and began to call orders.

"Form up! We have an alarm! Oncoming threat!" he shouted, running amongst the scant ranks, holding the hilts of his swords in preparation. Sally, Mitchell and Nigel all formed their "V", drawing their weapons. The two Descendants of Sandman formed their weapons, an axe and a gladius, and gathered their sand in order to form anything else they might need to in the heat of the moment. Nigel drew his swords, blades bursting out of the gold cylinders and a hand guard wrapping around each hand.

Taboo didn't join the 'V', instead standing off to the side with her nose to the wind.

Lupine was dashing head first, though the head was sweeping from side to head, sniffing the air. North's keen eyes saw the wolf's eyebrows, if that is what they were, furrow in frustration.

If he was looking for something, he clearly had been disappointed.

"Strengthen your stances lads." North said, anticipating the fight to come. Sally, Sandman's female Descendant, coughed audibly.

"And ladies." North amended politely.

Lupine saw that it was too late to turn back, and charged forward. He jumped clean over North, even as the Russian leapt up to meet him. The tips of swords barely missed the flesh of the beast's stomach.

Turning in midair, the canine crashed with his full weight sideways into Nigel, who was point position. He was barrelled over, but Sandy's Descendants kept their footing even as Lupine rolled off Nigel, who was seeing stars.

Taboo made to leap in, however the two Descendants lashed out with cobra's speed, forming sand whips and making it impossible for her to get in without getting tangled up, meanwhile the whips wrapped themselves around Lupine's legs and tangled within each other. Lupine was effectively bound, or so they thought. The dog writhed and the Descendants were having trouble focusing as he tried to bite at them.

He was barking and yipping with good volume, getting in their faces. Blinking back from the canine breath and the spittle that flew from his muzzle.

The whips dissolved and the dog shook of the sparkling dust. But by the time he was free, North was already upon him, as was the great golden man himself.

Sandy clamped Lupine's ankles and his muzzle together, forcing his head down to his feet, and trapping his front paws.

"You will heel like any other dog!" North yelled angrily. Hacking at the big, rippling muscles at his shoulders and flanks. Once those were cut, he would be paralyzed until he healed. Even an immortal like that would require days if not weeks to recuperate.

Despite the restriction, Lupine rolled around and kicked out with his hind legs. Sandy rolled horizontally in the air to avoid the paws.

The bonds still held, but even so Sandy took out his whips and began to attack the monster's unprotected armpit and ribs. North had circled around and was slashing at Lupine's underside. Rolling under his long legs, North was on his back.

But then the muzzle snapped as Sandy was preoccupied with Lupine tried to bombard him with his head. Once the muzzle broke, Lupine began to bite at North.

"Ach!" he tried to roll out, but Lupine's fancy footwork had him stuck for the moment. Before he could think of anything, Sandy's Descendants had whips on Lupine once more, dissipating their own weapons for now.

Claire and Tina were in the air with Mim.

"Do you think we can barrage him with these?" Claire had her eyes on the proverbial road, and could only cast quick glances down. But Mim and Tina had a full view of the scuffle.

"No. They're too packed, we can't hit that mutt, without hitting them." Said Mim.

"We can't just sit here. If Colin isn't making his grand entrance, we should give the reindeer a rest. They can run the world in a night, but we will need them on fresh legs for battle." Claire looked back but thought better of it and face front again.

The littlest Guardian saw the sense in her words and directed her to a cliff on the side of the mountain.

Mim jumped down one of the slides without thinking, and left the two Descendants of Toothiana to fly down after her, looking at each other and shaking their heads. As Mim slid to her feet and Claire and Tina landed, the trio felt the earth shake beneath them and cave in. Landing hard on the their feet and knees, the three saw Bunny glaring at one of the Osbournes.

"Looks like I went a bit too close to the surface." the man said sheepish under Mim's red eyed gaze, averting his own brown eyes.

"That's the point blighter. We're making giveaway pits for when that fire fool comes running." Sam said, arms crossed.

"We weren't expecting someone to be standing here." Vincent apologized, popping up from behind. Claire faked shock.

"I didn't know you were capable of being sorry." she said. Everyone burst out laughing.

"Woah Head. We don't want to breach protocol!" Billy was laughing so hard he was hardly making sound anymore.

"During a battle no less!" Bunny joined in on the joke. Claire blushed. Mim saw her smile for the first time. It greatly improved her looks. She decided to remind her to do it more often.

"From an Osbourne, oddly." Said Tina, smirking while Billy levelled a glare at her.

"Not now Tina. We can throw barbs at each other later."

"Good thinking Osbourne, now let's get going!" Claire ordered, having completely ignored Tina and Billy going at each other, although she knew she could not stop what she had started.

One of the Osbournes held out his hands in a basket, and Mim stepped in with one foot. He tossed her up with enough force that she went several feet above the entrance of the hole, and landed gracefully after a small flip. Brushing the ponytail out of her face, she waved in gratitude before running off.

Jackie froze for a grand total of one second before starting to rush after Colin.

"Wait!" Barked Jason, holding his arm out, despite Jackie being on the other side of the clearing.

"Why? He's getting away!" Cried Jackie as Jason sheathed his sword.

"It's not our fight." He said.

"Not yours maybe."

"He may not like you, but the one he has the real issue with is Mimic. She'll see him from the air." Jason assured, walking over.

"I'm still going after him."

"Jackie! Think!" Jason put a restraining hand on Jackie's shoulder. "You have a near crippling fear of fire, to the point where I'm amazed you're still in here. There's not enough water left in the air for you to freeze, meaning you'd have to form your own, which we both know takes more energy. Colin has the advantage, you don't."

When Jackie still didn't look convinced Jason placed his hands on both of her shoulders and looked her in the eye.

"You don't have to solve everything. No one will think any the less of you if you walk away. You're a bright young woman, your pride just clouds your judgement sometimes."

Jackie's fists clenched, seeing the logic in Jason's words and not liking it. Finally, her own logic kicked into gear.

"Fine, he's not exactly going to go far."

Jason nodded. "Exactly. Now, come on, let's get out of here."

The clearing they were in may have been more or less fire free, but the surrounding forest had gotten worse.

Jackie quickly started choking on the hot smoke, and Jason was only faring slightly better. Even with the armour's protection, Jackie could feel the heat of the fire and was already seeing double as her legs started feeling rubbery.

Jason saw his colleague's distress, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, steadying her.

"I've got you Jackie. You'll be fine."

Jackie coughed in response.

"I'm fine." She protested once her throat was clear and Jason snorted in disbelief.

"I'm not a doctor, but anyone could see that you're not."

Jason extended his free hand and with a second of concentration, the fire seemed to disappear nearby, leaving a corridor of clear forest for them to go through.

The heat lessoned and the pair ran. That bit of magic had Jason tired, but not so much that he couldn't run.

"Where are we going?" Asked Jackie, who had mainly been following Jason once she'd stopped seeing double. Her pride wanted her to run ahead, to lead the way, but she had gained more of a respect for the oldest Head, and she knew that if she stumbled into an area full of fire she was stuffed.

"We're heading to where most of the other Descendants are. The battlefield. Not that I expect you to fight, we're back up right now."

"Gotcha."

The two kept their path through the flames. Above them they could see the bright colours of Toothiana buzzing around, at least out of the flames. She saw them and flew down.

"Have either of you seen Jack?" She asked, ignoring Jason straightening his back and moving to salute.

"He's not with you?" Jackie asked, worried.

Toothiana shook her head.

Jackie scanned the area, and started moving herself away from Jason.

"No you don't." Reprimanded Jason, grabbing the back of her armour and bringing her to a halt. "If you go looking for him in this you're likely to die. I'll look."

"Jason!" Cried Jackie, annoyed.

"Your- Miss Toothiana, may I ask you to make sure Jackie gets out of the fire safely? And that she doesn't do anything stupid?"

"HEY!"

"You'll thank me later Jackie." Jason cleared another path through the flames in a different direction and ran off. Jackie made to follow him, but Toothiana grabbed her shoulder, trying not to wince at how hot her armour was.

"Come on. Where were you two going?"

Jackie watched Jason's retreating back, and then said.

"Battlefield."

Toothiana nodded, then gestured with her head where they were going to go.

"Follow me."

Toothiana flew just above the trees and Jackie ran to keep up, keeping one eye on the Tooth Fairy and another on the ground so that she wouldn't trip on anything.

Jason coughed as he ran deeper into the forest. His magic had cleared the flames, but there was little he could do about the smoke that still poured in from everywhere.

"Jack!" He called, not going with the protocol name for once, time was of the essence if Jack Frost was still in here.

"Jack!" He called again, trying not to cough. He might not have been the best person to go looking for him. Jason barely knew the Guardian of Fun, he didn't know why Jack was in here or where he'd be. Jackie or Toothiana would have been better in that respect, but Jason was the best one to tolerate the heat. Jackie had looked like she was about to pass out, and Toothiana was covered in feathers.

He and Jackie are similar, what would Jackie do if she couldn't get into the air? Jason asked himself, and quickly came to the answer.

Get to a fire free area.

Jason turned on his heel and ran back to where he'd confronted Colin.

He didn't find Jack in the clearing, but he found him nearby, in one of the parts that Jason had cleared.

Jack was leaned against a tree, his hood up and his staff slipping out of his sweaty grip. It was so hot down here.

"Jack!" He heard someone call, and he looked up to see who it was.

"...North?" He rasped, but quickly realised it wasn't North, he was too short, and was dressed in red armour.

"If only." Jason said, before reached Jack and wrapping Jack's arm around his shoulders.

"I'm fine." Jack protested, coughing.

"If Jackie hadn't said exactly the same thing, I might have believed you." Several hours later Jason would cringe at how bluntly he was talking to a Guardian, but right then he wasn't seeing a Guardian, he was seeing a kid too stubborn for his own good.

"Colin-"

"Has moved on." Said Jason. "Jackie's also on her way out. Right now I'd worry more about yourself." Jason also made sure to keep an eye on Jack's staff, in case he dropped it.

Jackie burst into the battlefield, breathing heavily and coughing to get the smoke out of her lungs.

Sandman, North, Mitchell, Sally and Nigel were fighting Lupine.

North was jumping around Lupine, jabbing him with his swords and moving away before Lupine could snap his jaws down. Nigel was doing something similar, but wasn't as agile as North, so was more leaning back and blocking.

Sandman and his Descendants were mainly holding Lupine in place, while also striking out at the shadow wolves that were trying to come up from behind.

Taboo had clearly failed to get herself in the main fight, so was also occupying herself with the shadow wolves.

Lupine had great cuts on his shoulders and flanks, clearly designed to restrict his movement until they healed, however, they weren't all that deep, so while they did restrict Lupine, they didn't stop him moving around. Not to mention that Lupine had summoned shadows to try and keep the swords and sand weapons away from the open and bleeding wounds.

"I'm going to head back to look for Jack." Said Toothiana as Jackie recovered her air. Before Jackie could say anything, Toothiana was off again, flying back into the main part of the fire.

Now Jackie was away from the fire, the sweat on her body was finally freezing, and the lowered temperature helped her recover more quickly.

Suddenly Lupine stopped attacking, his nose twitching as he turned his head towards Jackie, who had turned back to look at the smoking forest below them.

Before anyone could react Lupine leapt towards Jackie, sand bonds breaking as he snarled.

Nigel and Sally both broke off from the main group, yelling to try and give Jackie some warning, who turned around to see Lupine block out the sky.

Both of his front paws landed on her, forcing Jackie to the ground with a crash and a cry of pain as he put pressure on her still not quite healed burn.

Lupine didn't waste time with words, just opening his mouth to snap her neck.

Three things happened at once. Jackie formed icicles in the cooler air and flung them at Lupine's eyes. Sally's sand whips wrapped around Lupine's neck and pulled him back, and Nigel slashed at Lupine's leg with his twin retractable sabres.

Lupine was pulled back off Jackie, who was quickly back on her feet and facing Lupine.

The shadow wolves charged in, their red eyes glowing ominously as they attacked the remaining three, allowing their master to face the three Descendants of the Burgess Branch.

"Nice timing you two." Said Jackie, moving to form her ice blades, then changing her mind and drawing Istapp instead.

"You'd have done the same." Said Sally, swapping the whips for her gladius made from sand, her preferred weapon.

"This doesn't concern you." Growled Lupine. "This is between me and Davies."

Nigel and Sally strengthened their stances, moving subtly so that they were slightly in front of Jackie. Out of the corner of her eye, Jackie could see Taboo heading towards them, jumping over the shadows wolves, but some of them were latching on to her and somehow dragging her down.

"Reverse point." Muttered Nigel, and Sally and Jackie settled into their stances. This was more familiar, they were down two, but it didn't really matter. This move tended to work better with just three anyway.

Lupine snarled and leapt at the group. Jackie fired ice off her staff like it was a gun, Nigel dipped to the left to the slash at Lupine's side, while Sally did the same on the right.

Lupine howled and skidded backwards from Jackie's blast, but shook off the two other Descendants, leaving them for his shadow wolves, which he seemed to have an unending supply of.

"If those are your allies, Descendant of Frost." Lupine growled, taking a menacing step forward, ice dropping off his chest. "Then this is going to be easier than I thought."


	39. Chapter 39

39-Final Embers

Mim was out in the open, and by the looks of it, chaos had opened its gates and released its many horrors. The infantry was battling an army of shadow wolves, and the dark figures covered them like Nightmares. She remembered that feeling, back from years ago, when Nightmares had surrounded her…

She didn't have time to be nostalgic, she needed to do something! Anything!

Claire and Tina were behind her, but they had seen Tooth run back into the fire, with her fairies close behind. she whipped about to face the flying Descendants.

"Follow Tooth, Contain the fire." she ordered.

Looking to her far left, at the woods, she saw the burning light creeping towards a strain of trees that led to a town. If those trees caught, the flames would race down the tree lined street like a wick to dynamite.

"Sure thing Miss Mimic." Claire said.

"Of course Miss Mimic."

"It's just Mim!" she shouted at their retreating wings. Tina chuckled, and Claire simply ignored the comment.

Something both solid, but at the same time not, slammed into her side, and she was knocked off her feet and onto the ground. Windmilling her legs, she spun on her back, and felt her feet contact shadow, as her wolfish assailant was flung back.

Rolling back over her shoulder and onto her feet, she held up her arms in her typical fighting stance. One arm up by her face, the other reaching out, palm up. The lone wolf jumped and seeing Mim not moving opened its great black jaws.

But Mimic reacted at the last possible moment and dove under the dog, raking her hand, which had changed to flame, through its stomach. The light of the fire dispersed the shadow, and with a whimper the shadow disappeared.

The shadows had no weight, and were easy to throw off, even if they could charge hard, so they wouldn't set off the pits that Bunny's crew were creating.

Mim considered finding them, but they could be anywhere in the multiple square miles beneath.

She didn't have time to consider much else. Jackie's voice drifted to her in the form of a harsh exclamation. She, Sally, and Nigel were battling Lupine. North, Sandy and the other of Sandman's two present Descendants were holding the line with the shadow army while Taboo wasn't far from Lupine, also fighting the shadow wolves.

Observing altercation from afar, she saw that the three Descendants had their hands full. Lupine's tail, paws, legs and teeth were all capable weapons and the combined force he used with them was enough to keep the defenders at a distance circling unsteadily.

Mim saw Lupine's head toss Sally aside like a ragdoll.

Jackie was in the midst of pushing against Lupine's muzzle. He had gone in for a bite, and she had formed a long shaft of ice which he had bit down on instead of her arm. Now she was caught in a reverse tug of war, both of them pushing for ground and leverage. She had to use ice to anchor herself to stop Lupine from winning.

Nigel had abandoned his venture on attacking Lupine to see to Sally, who had not stirred after being thrown.

Jackie was now fighting alone. She actually had wanted this in a weird twisted way, reminiscent of several other fights.

Jackie scowled to herself, now was not the time to be remembering all those times. Right now it was her against Lupine...and a white wolf?

The bracelets on the forepaws identified the new fight factor as Mim. Jackie felt the pressure on her arm vanish as Mim bit full force onto Lupine's hind leg. Lupine let go of the ice bit and reached around with his head, but she was just out of his reach.

Jackie took the opportunity to freeze Lupine's feet to the ground. Lupine had many advantages against the Guardian. He was an abnormally large wolf, the size of a small car, with exceeding strength and speed. Mim was only a normal wolf, with normal strength and speed, maybe even slightly less, it being a mimitation.

But she was smaller. She darted around and under him as Lupine worked to free his limbs from the confines of Jackie's ice.

"Your days are over Frost Child!"

"I'm not dead meat yet!" Jackie shot ice from Istapp that spread frost across the wolf's fur, making the mutt shiver and clench from the cold. "And I'm pretty sure Jack and Mim might have something to say about that phrase!"

After a mighty bark and a tremendous tug, the ice binding Lupine to the ground gave and he turned his attention to Jackie and ignored the smaller wolf.

But Mim stepped in front of Jackie, planting herself between the two.

Jackie relaxed slightly in surprise, staring at the white wolf's back. What was she doing? She didn't have to do this.

"...Mim?"

"This isn't your fight pup!" Lupine barked out at her. Mim reverted to human since wolves don't talk...usually.

She opened her mouth to respond…

"No it's not. You're mine!" A wave of fire bore down. Mim grabbed Jackie and sent her over to Nigel, who was getting Sally to come to. Jackie hit the ground running, keeping a firm grip on the staff.

Nigel and Sally weren't so lucky as to get that head start. Both looked up to see Colin's face appearing behind the remnants of the shimmering air. His eyes staring at them and into them. The color in them changed from red to blood scarlet. He felt their anger and adrenaline and even fear.

He took the anger and ferocity and he twisted it and turned it, replacing his image with the Guardians', and Jackie's and the Heads'. Colin felt some buried fury attached to the illusion. So he wasn't the only one with an axe to grind with Man in Moon's loyal followers. He grinned at the thought.

"Why are you fighting me?" Colin asked them.

Their faces contorted in anger, blown out of control by Colin's tampering. Their eyes turned red, like his and they turned and ran after Jackie and Lupine, straight to the heart of the shadow army and North's infantry.

"Now dearest aunt, shall we finish what you started when you accepted the moon's offer yo-" he whirled around only to see the burnt grass, blowing away as ashes in the chilling wind.

"Alright then. All my life I was told you were clever. Let's play a game, you would like that, since you take after my uncle of sorts."

Silence was the only thing that greeted him as he strode out into the open space, reaching out with his emotional vision.

Mim was invisible, trying with all her might to maintain the power. She could shield her emotions from his sight. But it meant that she had to shut down her emotions, which was possible, but she could only do so much as she needed to hold onto just enough emotion energy to remain invisible.

She hoped the mimitation's translucent color would slip his notice amongst all the other, brighter emotional flashes of the battle.

"Come out, come out…" he chirped in an eerie child like voice. Why did have to inherit her less "honorable" skills?!

She kept to his right, noticing that he was left handed. As he moved about she was careful to remain behind his right shoulder.

"I don't feel like waiting all evening Auntie beloved." his voice dripping in mocking insult, "Shall I go after Uncle Jack instead?"

Mim pursed her lips and kept her silence. Colin had unsheathed the hockey stick off his back, and was flipping a flaming puck off the end, bouncing it off the hand guard, and twisting it all around, tossing it in the air and catching it again.

"Marco?"

As she crept, her foot pressed down on a rock. The rock gave and fell into a hole, where it clattered against the bottom of a pit. A pit she was sure Bunny had placed.

Colin turned her way.

"Polo."

He ran with his hockey stick in his hand. Sending an arc of fire at her, he jumped to follow the burning wave of air. Mim widened her invisible eyes and leaned back, pressing her back into the ground, her knees tucked under her, arms outstretched to either side.

She looked up and saw him pass over her. The pit cover collapsed, burying Colin in a cloud of dust.

"Guys."

Jackie backed up warily as Nigel and Sally approached her, weapons drawn and their eyes blood red. Both were at least thirty or forty years her senior, so had decades more fighting experience than Jackie, heck Nigel had taught her to sword fight!

She would never win if it came down to a fight, she had to try and talk them down. Sadly, not something she was good at.

"Please, snap out of it! It's me! I'm your friend!" Jackie was begging now.

Taboo had appeared and was currently circling Lupine, but the large wolf was currently content watching the show and recovering. Although he wouldn't allow the two Descendants to finish her off, that was his prize and his alone.

Still her corrupted Branch mates advanced, and Jackie was running out of mountain.

"Nigel, Sally!" She cried. "Please, just stop!"

"Cold, you were always cold." Sally hissed, and Jackie felt her heart start to break.

"Sally, please."

Istapp was still in her hand, but she wouldn't raise it, not against Sally, not against, sweet, kind, patient Sally. The woman who had taken every antic Jackie had pulled in stride.

Nigel rose his sabres, both pointed at her heart.

"Nigel, please, you taught me to fight. Nigel!"

"You outrank me." Was all he said.

Jackie's eyes flicked between the two Descendants. She couldn't, no, wouldn't stop them.

"Come on." She tried to reason with the pair, her voice cracking. "What would Alec and Tina think if they saw you?"

Still no effect.

Jackie's brain was whirring so first Taboo swore she saw smoke pour out of her ears. Why, why did it come down to appealing to emotions? Something Jackie had never truly understood.

She looked at Sally, and was struck by a memory, a very old memory.

A time when Jackie was scared and panicking, and Sally had chased it all away with a hug.

It might just get her killed, but she didn't have any other ideas.

She froze Sally's gladius and ran forward, wrapping her arms around the smaller woman. Sally struggled in Jackie's grip, but she held tight, hoping that Nigel wouldn't stab her in the back.

"Whatever I've done, I'm sorry. Just stop this, please. You're one of my best friends."

Sally's struggles started decreasing, and Jackie continued.

"You are always patient, you never shout, you've always had my back. Come back, please."

Sally stopped struggling, then cried out very panicky.

"Duck!"

Jackie pulled Sally down as Nigel's sword whooshed through the air Jackie's heart had been. The two women rolled apart and were on their feet in less than a second, in time for Jackie to block another blow from Nigel.

"Nigel, that's enough." Said Sally. "It's Jackie, our friend!"

"The Head…" Nigel growled, before slashing out again. Jackie blocked the first sword, but nearly got hit by the second that was angled for her neck.

"Jackie is still in your Branch. She is only Head in bigger things, in Burgess you're still in charge." Sally said, getting more and more worried as the clanging of metal was still being heard. Nigel hadn't been this obsessed over leadership since Billy had joined the Branch.

And Nigel's eyes still remained red.

"Do you know if knocking him out will work?" Sally asked Jackie.

"Not a clue. Not sure if I want to risk it." Jackie was still blocking blows from Nigel, and her arms were getting tired. If anything Nigel seemed to become more angry as Sally looked to Jackie for advice.

"I'm your second!" Jackie cried. "I didn't ask to be a Head, but I am now. I'm sorry if that annoyed you, but I'm still only second to you. I'm not wiser or in any way better than you. I'm sorry I've been moving away from you guys, I really am! It's just how things have been."

Nigel's eyes started to fade from red as Jackie's words started sinking in.

Nigel's blows seemed to pause for a second, and without wasting any time, Jackie snapped into a salute.

The gesture had the desired effect and Nigel shook his head, his eyes back to their normal blue.

He looked at Jackie, regret all over his face.

"Jackie, I am so sorry."

"Doesn't matter, we all get angry at people." Said Jackie, relaxing from her stance.

"Not your fault. We weren't expecting someone to able to manipulate our emotions like that." Added Sally.

"As charming as this all is." Growled Lupine. "How about we start where we left off?"

"With great pleasure." Jackie answered with a similar growl. Her heart had nearly been broken in two, and Lupine was about to bear the brunt of that pain. Sally, and Nigel, recognising the look on Jackie's face, decided to concentrate on the shadow wolves.

Jackie raised Istapp, and brought it down with a thud and a cry that echoed through the mountain, sending a wave of ice and snow in all directions and frosting over everything within three metres of her position.

Lupine was pushed back from the sheer force of the element, but was quickly back in the fight, not that impressed.

Jackie slashed the staff, sending an arc of ice at Lupine as Taboo latched onto one of his forelegs.

Lupine roared and shook the ice tiger off before charging at Jackie, who waited until the last second before ducking underneath him. She formed a spearhead on the end of Istapp and stabbed it into Lupine's gut.

The wolf roared and Taboo leapt on his back, grabbing the skin and successfully tearing at it.

He snarled and twisted his to try and reach her as Jackie slashed at parts of his legs before his left foreleg collapsed.

She rolled away as Lupine changed targets, successfully clamping his jaws around Jackie's torso.

His fangs didn't pierce her armour, but by moon did that hurt!

Jackie cried out and resorted to bashing his muzzle with her staff, kicking and wriggling in an attempt to get free. Lupine snarled at the attack, his fangs digging deeper into the armour, but still not piercing it. The metal of the staff was uncomfortably hot against his skin, not burning, but close.

Lupine stood up, a little unbalanced, and finally shook off Taboo, who was quickly engaged by his shadow wolves.

He shook his head, hoping to disorient the Descendant in his jaws and she continued to try and pry herself free.

"Let go you oversized poodle!" Jackie yelled, the snow beneath them swirling in response to her cry, however her brain was rattling around too much for her to properly concentrate on it.

Lupine wasn't enough of a fool to open his mouth to respond to that, so in answer he just shook harder.

Jackie's head was banging around inside her helmet, and she was starting to feel sick. This had gone quite badly.

Istapp still had the spearhead, so Jackie began jabbing it into Lupine's muzzle and gums. The Big Bad Wolf yelped in the back of his throat and his grip loosened slightly, but he didn't let go.

He then let out an actual yelp and dropped Jackie to the ground as he wheeled away from a sudden onslaught.

Jackie's eyesight was blurry with dizziness, but she didn't need to see well to recognise that shade of blue floating in the air.

Jack Frost had joined the fray.


	40. Chapter 40

40-Four Elements

Jackie managed to clear her vision and got to her feet as her ancestor landed.

"What is it with you and impeccable timing?" Jackie asked.

"Are you complaining Icicle?"

"Nope, just making an observation."

Toothiana hovered overhead while Jason found himself fighting the shadow wolves that had closed around their master.

"Well, this is getting a little too interesting." Growled Lupine, seeing the two new Guardians and the new Head. "But I didn't come this far to be denied!"

He made another leap for Jackie, who dived out of the way and Jack flew up into the air, slashing his staff and sending a blast of winter magic at Lupine.

Jackie rolled to her feet and decided to stop with physical attacks, sheathing Istapp. As Billy would say, time to go mana!

She took advantage of the surrounding snow and whipped it up into a frenzy by swirling her arms like a mad conductor. The snow was moving so quickly that the air was also moving, creating a small wind.

From her protective dome of swirling snow Jackie raised and threw out her arm, fingers flared and sent out sharp projectiles towards Lupine, who was also facing an assault from Toothiana from above, her borrowed swords opening new cuts in his back, the red blood marring the black fur.

Lupine growled and snapped at Toothiana, catching some of her tail feathers, but she escaped his jaws unharmed.

"You never could face me alone could you?" Lupine growled. "The only time you did was when I underestimated you pup. Ever since you've either had your tiger or your Guardian friends to back you up and hide behind."

Jackie had fallen for his goading before, and wasn't about to do it again. She took a deep breath and stilled her arms, allowing her mind to take over the swirling snow.

Now her arms weren't moving she could focus entirely on the snow that covered the mountain. She could almost see everyone's positions, their next movement and where any potential weaknesses and openings were. Except Toothiana and her Descendants, there wasn't enough snow in the air anymore.

There was a kind of peace that came with such awareness, and without any rush Jackie sent snow to trap Lupine's paws, hardening it to ice and sending a sharp shard into one of his injured limbs.

She couldn't see it, but she heard Lupine's coinciding howl of pain.

Something crossed her awareness, and she became alert to something that was attacking her shield. It wasn't solid, so couldn't directly predict it, but could guess that Lupine had sent out shadows to take down her wall.

She turned the shield to solid ice and encased herself in it, hands out to re-enforce it, eyes still closed as she concentrated on the snow.

Jack looked down at Jackie and felt a twinge of concern in his stomach as he saw her standing stock still, arms outstretched at her sides within a ball of ice that was attacked by shadows. Then he saw the surrounding snow bending to her will and icicles forming in mid air.

As Jamie liked to put it, Jackie was doing her 'Toph' thing. Something she'd picked up entirely on her own.

"One day, she's going to have to teach me that." Jack muttered to himself before joining Tooth in their continued attack on Lupine.

Taboo was still fighting the shadow wolves, but was becoming frustrated about not fighting anything actually solid. Lupine was nearby, the very creature for why she existed. beyond Jackie's own arrogance, and Taboo wanted to get her teeth into him again, if only these pests would leave her alone!

Their shadowy claws couldn't do much against her solid, icy exterior, they were just irritating, a nuisance that she couldn't shake.

Taboo roared and changed size, but instead of growing smaller, she grew bigger.

Not much bigger, just big enough to make it easier for her to crush and scatter the red eyed shadows.

Mim coughed as the cloud stone dust swirled up around her. Dropping her mimitation, she jumped blind into the hole. Colin had to be in here somewhere. There was only one tunnel leading out of the pit, and even then it was small. Ducking her head she began to follow the trail of smoke and ash which discolored the rock.

James and Jacob Beck were still on the mountain, but they were beginning to worry. Without Jack to tend the blizzard, the clouds were fading and the white out that had blocked the sun was now diminished to a flurry.

The twins shared a look.

"Think we can fix this?" James asked, messing with his hair beneath his helmet, a stress habit.

Jacob had developed a similar mannerism. "Without Jackie or Jack? Nuh-uh."

"Well we've got to keep the temperature down!" James tugged at the hair near his forehead.

"No duh! But we can't get that kind of power. Not even Jackie can do that! No Descendant can!" Jacob reiterated the obvious.

"Not on our own, maybe…" James shook his head as he thought about it. "Maybe if we had everyone, we could do it, but we don't."

"Well! What do we do? You were always the creative one!" Jacob yelled over the mountain wind in response to his brother.

"Oh so now that we're in trouble, I'M the creative one!" James head was spinning. He had idea what to do. Jackie had gone blizzard of '68 down on the battlefield and Jack was there turning Lupine into a popsicle.

"Maybe we can tag team with Jack. We can take down Lupine." Jacob suggested. The two had an almost telepathic agreement, and jumped down onto the slides, winding their way down the slopes at hurricane speeds. Being the Becks they began to race.

James pulled in his arms to decrease the air resistance, but Jacob fell onto his back and crossed his arms over his chest, shooting down the mountainside like a bullet.

"No fair!" James called out over the air whistling past his ears.

"You never said we had to stay standing up." Jacob smiled like the little boy he was on the inside.

Over in the still burning forest, Claire and Tina were using their wings to blow the fire back towards the mountain. Unlike their ancestor, the two couldn't make strong winds with their wings, even combined, but the breeze they stirred up kept the blaze at bay. Tooth's mini fairies were with them, and the small flitting sprites were zooming through the fire, looking for any water source to extinguish it.

Every time they returned, they reported nothing but smoke and ashes. No water to be found.

"Well all we can do is hover and wait." Tina rolled her shoulders and tilted her neck from side to side, the resounding crack making Claire, a doctor, cringe.

"You really should see a chiropractor about that." she put her hands on her hips and looked sternly at the far more liberal Descendant of the Tooth Fairy.

"Just because her Royal Highness our great grand-somebody was high strung and uptight, doesn't mean you have to be." she quipped back with a smug look.

"Tina! How can you say that?" Claire was aghast.

"What? That you're uptight? It's not that hard to do." Tina was enjoying the irked expression of her Head. she could always chalk it up to battle brain and stress. Claire had always gone on and on and on about the effects of battle on the human mind.

"I believe Billy would call that 'pot calling the kettle black'."

"I'm only like that with Billy!"

As the two kept talking, the mini fairies tried to get their attention. They knocked on their armor and tugged lightly on their hair but the Claire waved them away, more focussed on Tina's big mouth.

It took all five fairies banging on Claire's helmet with their little fists to get her attention and at that point Claire crossed arms agitatedly.

"What?!"

The responding squeaks and chirps and waving of tiny arms made her head coil up.

"Hold on...slow down." Claire asked the fairies to repeat themselves. She had known mini fairy a long time ago, and all of Toothiana's Descendants had a knack for tongues and dialects, but mini fairy was subtle and needed a good ear, at which Claire was a long time out of practice.

"Okay...mmhmmm...alright." Claire nodded and looked up the way she did when she was thinking hard.

"What's this about a candle?" Claire asked finally. The lead fairy face palmed and pointed down to the continuing fire below.

Claire and Tina looked to see the plumes of smoke rising ever higher and as the furnace reached a new area of dry wood, the green leafy trees, and tall pines sent up a rising smoke so great that the heat and suffocating toxins made the 7 flying creatures woozy.

Claire didn't even notice that they had lost altitude until her feet touched down in the ashes.

Looking about, she gasped only to cough it back up and double over in pain as her lungs screamed from being seared in her chest. Tina had collapsed from inhaling the gaseous death. The fairies had somehow flown out of the cloud and were nowhere in sight.

The heat made her wings wilt, and she was sweating. Tina's body would keep its internal temperature due to her armour, but if she kept breathing in the smoke…

They were in a cleared area where the fire had run out of fuel, but it raged all around them.

Seeing Tina on the ground, breathing faintly brought back Claire's wits.

Smoke rises.

Getting down on her hands and knees she crawled to Tina who stirred when the hot armour on Claire's hand touched her face.

"C'mon Tina, we have to move."

Birds have a higher body temperature than that of other creatures, any they would last longer in here than any other Descendant group present, but if they didn't haul their way out soon, Claire knew they were going to be cooked.

Tina refused to stir though and so Claire looped herself under the incapacitated woman's left arm and stood hunched over, low to the ground where the air wasn't so stifling. The going was slow as she moved, but at least she was going.

Under the ground, Bunny and his squad sensed trouble. The smell of smoke and burning things reached their keen noses and heavy footsteps echoed in the stone.

A smaller, quicker and lighter presence was also speeding through. Bunny tapped his foot on the ground and began to run under the main tunnel system. The whole complex they had made ran deep, almost a hundred feet at the deepest.

The pits they had dug were various depths and the top layer of tunnels had another beneath them so that if they had to fight down here, they could circumnavigate the enemy.

"Did you feel it mate?" Bunny called to Billy, who was huffing to keep up with the Pooka.

"Yeah, a little."

"Me too" Sam met them at a corner and joined the pack. Vincent and the rest of the Osbournes ran beside as well, just a few tunnels down. Bunny could feel they were getting closer.

"Take cover!" David yelled. The old patriarch had senses like a bloodhound and experience to boot, and he had sensed it coming a mile away.

The group ducked into side tunnels as an explosion of fire ripped past them. When it had cleared, Bunny saw Colin sprinting by.

"Ya little anklebiter, I'm gonna-!" Bunny tried to tackle him. They were currently near the center of their massive constructed labyrinth.

As Bunny chased Colin in and out of the tunnels, he kept turning Colin back towards the middle, where his Descendants used their inherited gifts to try and detain him each time they passed. Vincent had roots growing from the ceiling and with flora-kinesis, he tried to knot them in Colin's feet and legs, but the mimitated descendant burned through them.

As Vincent created more and more roots, Sam tried to pound him with rocks from the surrounding wall, after all she had always loved hitting things.

David and Adam were scattered throughout the tunnels, each one of them trying to catch Colin by wrapping the earth around his feet, but each time his momentum was enough to break free. David eventually started using Vincent's trick as well, as he could use both, but that didn't work either.

At this point, no had noticed Mim sealing off the tunnels near them with thin layers of rock. It was the most she could move at the time, given that she was trying to find Colin at the moment.

Billy was watching his siblings all bend the earth and nature, resenting his limits, but in a moment of inspiration or insanity, he stuck out his foot as Colin arrived again, with Bunny hot on his tail, pun intended. Colin tripped and fell.

Mim chose that moment to pounce, but she didn't get a chance. The universe seemed to have other plans, as it always does.

Bunny had managed to grab onto Colin's wrists and pin them on his back, but a deafening rumble and a series of cracks drew everyone's attention away from the capture.

Vincent's roots and Sam's slamming and everyone pounding on the walls and running,they had completely ignored that which tunnel-makers must always remember: infrastructure.

The walls began to tremble and quake, cracks ran up the walls, over the ceiling and across the floors. As everyone pranced around like fools as the earth jostled them, Colin kicked Bunnymund off his back. Mim caught his escape and held on, wrapped around him and turned to steel.

The tunnels, that went under the entire battlefield caved in.


	41. Chapter 41

41-The Beginning of the End

Jackie, still in snow sense mode, was the first to notice that the ground was trembling.

Her eyes snapped open and she yelled.

"IN THE AIR!"

However, when you're encased in ice, no one can hear what you're saying.

Both Becks also felt the ground shift beneath the snow, but it seemed to be more concentrated on the battlefield, which they hadn't reached yet.

"STOP!" They both yelled at each other and skidded to halt as there was a massive crack, and the entire plain sank into the ground.

Taboo felt the earth shift beneath her paws, and before she could react the ground beneath her fell in.

She yelped in surprise and fear (although she would deny it later) and fell about ten feet into the ground. She landed on her paws and rolled to take off some of the stress of the impact. Rocks fell from above and trapped her paw and tail with a yell of pain.

Sandy, Sally and Mitchell had quick enough reflexes to block the rocks with sand barriers, although Mitchell felt his ankle go as he landed and fell hard on his side, his ankle throbbing in pain.

The shadow wolves seemed to be barely affected by the rock fall, and were on the Descendants like nothing had happened, barely giving them enough time to recover. North had his coat trapped beneath a rock and now had to defend his position. Sandy, Mitchell and North had been more or less fighting back to back, but now they were separated in this pit, with new terrain and having to hold their positions alone. Mitchell had strapped up his ankle with sand, but alone he was in trouble.

Jackie's concentration had more or less been shattered as the ground collapsed beneath her, falling several metres before landing with a thud. Her ice shield had held, if with cracks in its surface, but there was no longer any snow in the nearby area, except above her, so that strategy was out the window.

Jackie got back on her feet, and saw with some relief that Lupine was also down for the moment. His large body made him a larger target for falling rocks, and he was already quite badly injured, so he was lying beneath several large rocks.

At least, she thought. What she actually saw was a large black blob with a few smaller brown blobs. Her glasses had fallen off in the sudden drop.

She pulled up a visor and her glasses tumbled out of her helmet, in two pieces, she couldn't even see which piece was which, her eyesight was incredibly blurry.

She pulled one visor up and pulled down the prescription visor, blinking as her eyesight outside of her helmet came back into focus. Time to deal with those cracks in the shield as Lupine shifted, shoving rocks off him.

A long way behind her Jason also got painfully to his feet. Moonstroke lay several feet away from him, the blade glowing softly as the shadow wolves advanced. They avoided the blade, but now Jason had no weapon besides his magic, which he wasn't sure that was enough to keep the wolves away.

He muttered a shield spell and and carefully looked around at his adversaries, trying to think of the best spell to handle this.

The only ones to not be affected by the sudden lowering of the battlefield was Jack and Tooth, who both hovered where they had already been, seeing the trouble that everyone was suddenly in. Shadow wolves were still on what remained of the surface, and were charging towards the Becks on the edge of the crater, thankfully, the wolves couldn't fly, so Jack and Tooth were safe.

Instead they got a good view of who was in trouble. Sally and Nigel were back to back facing the shadow wolves, Sandy was fine, but North and Taboo were still trapped, Mitchell was struggling and Jason was weaponless.

"I'll get North and Mitchell!" Tooth declared, as they were in roughly the same area and she could at least get Mitchell to either of the other Guardian's position.

Since Taboo couldn't really be hurt by the shadow wolves, Jack flew over to Jason's sword. The wolves snapped at him, but he could fend them off with a slash of his staff.

Jack got Moonstroke and went over to Jason, whose shield was still holding strong, so strong that Jack couldn't get through.

"Jason!" Jack called over the snarls and he waved the sword.

Jason's forehead was creased in concentration as he fired spell after spell at the shadows, either disintegrating them or making bright flashes of light.

He saw Jack and nodded. "Okay, drop it here," he pointed to a spot just in front of him, "in three, two, one!"

Jason dropped the shield and Jack dropped the sword, where it landed on the ground with a thud. Quick as a snake, Jason darted down and picked up, and then began fighting off the shadow wolves with relative ease.

Tooth pulled the rock off the end of North's coat and quickly flew above Mitchell.

"I am fine Miss Toothiana." Said Mitchell, lashing out with his axe and whips. Almost as soon as he said it a wolf got through his defence and latched onto his back. Mitchell got rid of it before it could get through his armour, but that was enough to convince Tooth otherwise.

She picked up the Descendant, who was surprisingly light with his armour, and dropped him beside Sandy.

Taboo it turned out hadn't needed much help, quickly shaking off the rocks, leaving Jack to check back in with Jackie as Tooth flew over to help Jason.

Lupine had used his shadow power to get most of the rocks off, and was still using that power to assault Jackie's shield, which was cracking as fast as she could repair it. He was clearly struggling to stand up by this point, but attacking him physically would be difficult, he'd gone all out with the shadows, they had formed some kind of protective armour around him.

Nevertheless, Jack went in to fight him.

Mim blinked her eyes in horrible confusion. The dust and dirt made her squeeze her eyes shut and cough in the air. She felt the wind blowing over her so she wasn't buried under the earth when the caves collapsed. This was affirmed by the fact that despite her blindness, light made its way through her eyelids.

Using the mimitation of phasing, she let all the small particles fall off and through her. Rubbing her eyes which still stung she got her first glimpse of the scene.

Bunny was picking himself up and was shaking all the dirt out of his fur.

"How were they not paying attention?" he grumbled under his breath. A few of his Descendants were unconscious. David, Billy and Sam were standing, albeit rather reluctantly.

"Did they get hit by the falling rocks?" Mim asked as she pushed some of the stone off Vincent's legs.

"With our training?" Sam snarked, "As if. They tried to move the rocks out of the way with their powers and didn't realize how much mountain that was. Like Jackie trying to make a storm on her own."

Mim nodded. She herself had fainted a few times from pushing too hard. They ought to come to in a few minutes. Until then they had other problems on their hands, or paws in Bunny's case.

Colin used fire to blow the rocks off of himself. All the rubble surrounding him was blackened with ash and burnt dust. He was breathing heavily and his shoulders rose and fell with each huff. His hockey stick was broken in two pieces and he cast the tool aside.

His skates were broken too, so there would be no easy escape for him now.

Not to mention they were in a giant crater, near a hundred feet deep in the middle. Boulders and rocks marred the landscape and cracks broke the ground apart, each step being a doozy.

"A little dirt. Is that the best you can do?" he spat out. Blood dripped from a gash just below his left eye. Mim saw him heat up his hand and press it to his face. He cried out in pain, but after a minute he had successfully cauterized the wound, the blood staunched.

"I beat you once, I can beat you again!" Mim roared in his face. He was taller, stronger, and had the knowledge of hindsight, but the look on his ancestor's face gave the impression that only Man in Moon could save him now.

Wielding her own fire, she attacked him. Not only had her eyes turned red, but her clothes had turned into a dress on flame. The fabric shimmered like smoke, but was a swirling tie-dye of red, orange and yellow. Her skin had darkened, as had the expression on her face.

"Impressive show. But that's all it is! A show!" Colin was baiting her, but he was moving backwards, into the center of the hole, where it descended even deeper into the earth.

"Is it now?" Mim called after him, springing from boulder to boulder, always keeping the upper ground.

The pair was oblivious to the rest of the battle. Bunny's Descendants looked on, unsure what to do. Tooth was getting the view of it all from the air. North and Sandy were beating back the shadows. Jack and Jackie were sending fur flying as they battled Lupine.

Lupine spun to dislodge the winter spirit that was currently whittling away at his armour. Frost was managing to stay stubbornly attached there, Jack's staff sending arcs of winter magic across the shadows, successfully making them disappear faster than he could replace them.

His tail slammed into the still more or less standing shield that Jackie had up, but that blow was the end of it. The shield cracked and shattered into pieces, and the force was enough to send Jackie flying backwards.

She landed on her side and skidded, finally colliding with one of the many new rocks scattered across the battlefield. The impact made her armour ring, but overall she was unharmed.

She was quickly back on her feet and was running back in, slashing at any shadow wolf that tried to stop her with Istapp. Lupine saw her approach and sent shadows at her to try and stop her before turning back to Jack, who was still managing to hold on, like he was in some kind of rodeo.

Jackie successfully ducked and dodged the shadows, her battle instincts coming back now that her body had had a chance to rest with her mass use of psychic ice. Her head still ached, but that wasn't an issue.

She spun the staff around and around in her hands, forming snow and agitating the air around it as it spun. When it got so fast that it was a blur of gleaming white metal, Jackie stopping and sent the accumulated snow at Lupine. It went at him in a blast, successfully removing another chunk of armour on his side.

Jackie then took the snow and hardened it, turning to ice so it would stick to his fur.

Lupine roared as more cold seeped in, and turned and leapt for Jackie, who dived and rolled out of the way.

"Will you stand still?!" Lupine roared as he continued to try and catch Jackie, but at that point the Descendant was a little too fast and a little too lucky.

"You really are getting desperate aren't you?" It was Jackie's turn to throw out the barbs. "What do you think I am? Some kind of dog?"

Lupine snarled and leapt again, only just missing Jackie as his front paws slammed down, sending up plumes of dust.

The dust reached Jackie and she coughed, pausing to wave her hand in front of her face. Sensing an advantage, Lupine leapt again, making sure to scratch up more dust so Jackie couldn't see him.

This time, he succeeded.

Both paws collided with Jackie, forcing her to the ground as the air was shot out of her lungs. Istapp clattered a few feet away, glowing softly.

Lupine grinned and opened his jaw, ready to end this at last.

Neither Jack or Jackie were having it. Jackie sent icicles into his face as Jack hooked the end of his staff into Lupine's ear and tugged.

The wolf howled in pain from both attacks and stumbled back, trying to get the icicles out of his face as blood trickled down it.

"Damn you ice freaks!" Lupine snarled, turning his head round to snap at Jack, but he was already gone. He was in the air, shooting ice at remained of the armour while Jackie staggered to her feet, still breathless as she retrieved Istapp.

"Heads up!" Yelled Jack and Jackie turned in time to see sharp shadows heading her way. They thudded into a wall of ice, which Jackie then shattered and sent at Lupine.

And the dance continued.

Mim was catching up and fast. Colin was beginning to trip on some of the small stones as he scampered, but he kept his footing and kept moving. He occasionally sent a blast back at Mim but she dodged with ease.

Eventually he had reached the bottom of the crater. He had nowhere to go but up. Mim was on him in moments and as he tried to climb the opposite wall of earth, she grabbed onto the back of the neck of jacket and flung him on the ground.

He landed squarely on his back and grunted on impact, but he shot his legs up and with it a stream of fire so high that Tooth had to move as not to be scorched.

Bunny moved in and tried to take on Colin, but flames deterred them.

The flames weren't Colin's.

They were Mim's.

"He is mine!" she said. she didn't even raise her voice, but everyone heard and as a collective they all took a step back. The battlefield had turned into an arena. All the fighters were now spectators to witness an aunt and a nephew pull out all the stops and end this.

"You can't win, I know all your weaknesses, all of you!" Colin grasped at his words and looked about. North and Sandy were up above him, looking down on him. People always looked down on him. He was only half as good as her, and even she was not as good as the real deal.

Diminished pride incited a new wave of rage and he spun on the spot, unleashing a ring of fire about him. Mim split the wave with her hands and moved in with a quick flaming punch which he dodged. This repeated over and over, as he attempted to push her back, and she danced in and out like a snake, a snake waiting for the lucky bite.

"You are going to learn that you don't mess with me or my family, past present or future!" she punctuated each phrase with kick.

Her feet were surrounded by fire, and as she flipped and walked about on her hands, her longer legs were free to lash at him. The Beck twins had made it to the crater. All the Descendants looked on with mixed feelings, watching them fight. Some had conjured shields of ice, earth or magic to protect themselves from the waves of boiling heat.

The Becks wanted nothing to do with what was happening down at the deepest part of the crater. They didn't share Jackie's utter terror of fire, but they weren't exactly fond of it either.

They hunkered down behind a large rock to protect themselves from the heat, as it melted their ice pretty quickly.

Jason watched in awe and little fear as he conjured a shield. He didn't need to worry too much about the shadow wolves anymore, so his eyes were fixed on the display below him. This was the reason the Guardians were respected, they had power that they as Descendants could never match.

Sally and Nigel stood behind Sally's sand shield, reinforced with some of Nigel's magic. They had one eye on Jackie, two eyes on the spectacle below, and another on the two Descendants of Toothiana at the edge of the crater, too far to be affected by the fire.

Sally's stomach clenched in concern at her childhood friend being held up by Claire, but was also in awe at what was happening below.

The standing Descendants of Bunnymund had moved their unconscious brethren out of the way of the oncoming heat wave, either forming their own shields of rock to hide behind, or in Billy's case, diving for the nearest available rock and hiding behind that.

Now Billy knew why Jackie was so afraid of fire.

Mim now abandoned her fast moving tactic. She raced inwards and grabbed Colin's wrists with her hands which were red like magma. In this state, only an active volcano or a sun could burn them, so her sweltering palms didn't hurt him, but now they were tangling with neither using hands.

Mim used the flexibility gained from years dancing to use her legs to reach his head and stomach, but his hockey prowess bore down on her with raw power.

Releasing him, she went for an exposed patch of his side, opened by him lifting his arm to defend against against an arc of fire sent by her. She sent a swift kick to the area, but he closed his arm down on her leg and tried to pull her in.

She took her other, left, leg and placed it on his chest, using it to push back. It didn't make him let go, but it bought her time to bend back and get her hands on the ground. Flexing as hard she could, she caught her trapped foot on the back of his shoulder blade and flipped him over her.

He crashed his chest into the rocky terrain, which made him let her leg go. As she got back to her feet, he punched up to her stomach. She twisted to her right and he missed but his other arm managed to find its way to her back and it pushed her into a steep rock face.

She caught her weight with her hands and looked back to see him coming at her.

In fast reflex she jumped with a little fire power push and his flaming fist collided with the rock, crumbling an indent.

"You can't run forever!" Colin yelled at Mim who had fallen behind him in a crouch. As he spun she sent out a wave of heat that forced him to his knees.

"Who said I was running? Battle isn't all fight or all flight." she scolded, "You as my only Descendant ought to have figured that out!"

"Well you never taught me that! You never even said hello, never visited!" he pushed back with a heat wave of his own. The air where the waves met was beginning to burn a glowing red-ish gold.

"I didn't do anything yet!"

"You will!"

"I'll decide that!"

By watching the burning air, one could see each giving some ground in turn, only to regain it. The two contested as the everyone watched. The Guardian's wanted to jump in and end it. But they understood that the personal demons can only be fought alone. Tooth had to take on the Monkey King alone. Bunny had his one on one with Pitch, and North had confronted his enemies. Jack had defeated the pain of his memories.

They could not assist Mim here.

But they were positive she could defeat him.

Even as these thoughts entered their minds, Colin's wave began to crackle and fade. His rage broke its borders as it was mixed with desperation, and sadness, and defeat. He lost control.

Mim saw it as his eyes lost their distinctive identity. Looks like a Descendants own emotions could make them lose it. It took the emotions of several passionate others to make her relinquish her control. It seemed that there was a limit on her Descendants.

But with him like this, a straight mimitation wouldn't be able to stop him...not unless…

As she saw him smoldering, the explosion building, she scrambled out of the figurative arena and ran to Bunny. He spread the word.

The three conscious Osbournes were the first to get it. Billy found himself concentrating on his dad. David, and why the old man just couldn't let him be! Had to belittle everything he'd accomplished.

The tables were also turned with David, a more despairing anger at his younger son. The boy would never amount to anything if he kept living his life like he was now!

Sam, not finding an issue with either of her current family members, just remembered the first time she'd lost a sports contest at school, the anger she'd felt at the winning classmate.

And that she'd almost collapsed part of the school, but details details.

Sandy didn't need to search far. He was shocked that sand wasn't spewing from his ears throughout this whole ordeal. This idiot was messing up his family and friends. that was enough to make his bloodboil.

North thought that Colin reminded him of himself, when he was a young lad. Mad at those who had not guided him North was often mad at himself for this, and so this was his energy he sent to Mim.

Mitchell found himself concentrating on the Beck twins, whenever they played a prank on him and told him to 'lighten up'. He didn't hate them, but they made him so mad sometimes!

Bunny was at the Beck twins next, who had a hard time thinking of anything that made them angry. After a bit of conferring, they settled on this one stick in the mud bully they had in elementary school. It wasn't much, looking back they were just annoyed, but angry wasn't really something the twins could do well.

Sally also didn't have much to fall back on, also focusing on someone from elementary school to get at least somewhat angry.

Nigel recalled when Billy first joined the Burgess Branch, and had challenged his authority. How that had made his blood boil then. He also felt guilt, remembering his induced rage at Jackie earlier.

Bunny passed by Jack, Jackie and Taboo, but barely had enough time to pass on the message before Lupine lunged at him, so quickly moved on.

Lastly was Claire and Tina, the latter just regaining consciousness.

Claire, although usually not an outwardly emotional woman, did find something that made her angry. Some of her patients! Honestly, some of them were idiots!

Tina, while still a little dazed from the smoke, found it easy to get angry at something. Mainly, Billy. The man infuriated her at times. There was also some annoyance with Jackie in there, the girl never even tried to be normal at times, and her interpretation of 'dinner wear' was what she always wore.

Mim felt the wave coming, she felt it press against the defenses on her consciousness. And then in the most careful way possible...she let the colors consume her vision. To be specific...one color...red.

The anger was beautiful and terrifying and as she let the emotions take her over, she struggled to maintain only an inkling of control. Just enough to send all the power at Colin. At that moment Colin lost it completely. His own fire, like the force of a bomb went off, sending the Descendants behind their shields, cowering.

Those who could see were in awe. The fire was almost white, it was so hot!

The air itself crackled and popped in the heat, the rocks in the direct vicinity of the two burning people melted, making a small volcanic pond, waves of molten rock splashed on their shields like ocean waves, caused by the force of the explosions.

Jackie could feel the heat of Mim's fight on the back of her armour, but she was a little too focused on not dying herself.

Lupine no longer had the strength to keep up the shadow wolves, so Taboo was hanging off his back like some bizarre and macabre Christmas tree decoration.

Word had reached them of what Mim was doing, and Jack paused. He wanted to help Mim, but Jackie was more likely to die.

Jackie also had gotten the word, but knew there was little she could do about it right now, except Jack had stopped fighting.

And it didn't take a genius to figure out why.

"Taboo! You're up!" Jackie yelled and Taboo growled gleefully through a mouthful of fur.

"About time!"

Taboo let go and dropped to the rocky ground. Once there, she drew in as much air borne water as she could, getting bigger and bigger until she matched Lupine in size.

Taboo let out a roar loud enough to rattle the loose earth, and both ice users winced at the noise.

Jackie called Jack over as the two enormous, unnatural animals clashed with a roar.

"Jack, help Mim." Was all Jackie said before Jack could open his mouth.

Jack was clearly torn, looking over at where everyone else was pouring their anger at Mim, and then over at where Lupine and Taboo were fighting.

"You could die."

"I'm a Descendant, it's an occupational hazard." Jackie defended. "Besides, I'll die eventually anyway. Mim, won't. Probably a good idea to stay on her good side if you're going to spend eternity together."

Jack didn't like being reminded that Jackie was going to die at some point, but saw what his Descendant was trying to say.

"Are you sure?"

"Well, if she was worth making an ice statue of, then who am I to stop you?" Asked Jackie asked, smirking as Jack's face started to go red.

"H-how did you know about that?!"

"Seriously? I've been going to that lake every night since I was six, did you think I wouldn't notice?"

Jackie had to chuckle at the utterly stunned look on Jack's face.

"Go on, you're wasting time." She said more seriously, gesturing with her head Mim's position. "Besides, I think we've got it here."

Jack nodded, shot Jackie a grin, and ran to help Mim.

Jackie quickly back to Lupine, where he and Taboo were currently swiping at each other and moving for bites.

"Time to end it here. I wish you luck Mim, but I can't help you right now." Jackie said, more to herself as she charged back into her fray.


	42. Chapter 42

42-Endgame

Taboo was having the time of her life.

She had been essentially born in battle, and a good fight in her mind was always welcome.

Especially now that she towered over everyone else!

Taboo let out an earsplitting roar and rammed her shoulder into Lupine, causing the wolf to yelp as he was pushed to the ground. Taboo placed her paws on his wounded shoulders, grinning sadistically as her claws shot out.

She was vaguely aware of Jackie trying to do her thing. Trying to get in to help by freezing parts of Lupine to the ground, but right now her help wasn't needed.

The two were usually in sync with each other in a fight, especially when they were fighting the same set of enemies. However, that was the problem, there needed to be more than one enemy usually, and they both had to be fighting them, something that hadn't really been happening lately.

Lupine yelped and scrabbled his paws at Taboo, his claws scratching at the solid ice that made up her body. Taboo growled and swiped her own claws at Lupine, which were sharper given a cat's natural ability to retract their claws.

More gashes opened up in Lupine's black fur and the wolf yelped in pain. He really had been put through the wringer, it was only down to his standing as an immortal that he was still fighting, any normal wolf would have at least passed out long ago.

Having fun there? Jackie asked Taboo, using their connection to communicate as usual.

"Great fun."

Should have known you were a sadist.

"And it's only taken you eight years to work that out."

Taboo could hear Jackie laugh, brought on a little bit by adrenaline no doubt. She could also feel a bit of relief in Jackie's mind. After what happened during the last major, end all, fight, Jackie was a little wary about finishing it herself.

Lupine kicked up with his hind legs, pushing Taboo of him and growling as he got to his feet.

Taboo barely gave him a chance to recover as she charged and bit on the side of his neck, feeling blood on her icy canines. Lupine yelped and reached around to try and bite Taboo, but fell short.

Taboo pushed him back down and kicked up with his back legs, scratching at Taboo's underside and sending ice shavings everywhere. Those ice shavings quickly melted from the heat of the fire coming from Mim and Colin.

Taboo held on, gripping harder. Lupine yelped and whined at an even higher pitch, sounding more like a pathetic dog than the terrifying Big Bad Wolf.

"In your own time Jackie." Taboo growled. "My jaw's getting tired."

Jackie ran forward, her gloved hand becoming covered in frost. Before she got too close Lupine got enough strength to call the shadows, sending them blasting out from his body.

They caught Jackie and Taboo and sent the pair flying backwards. Jackie flew back several feet before colliding with one of the steeper parts of the crater, essentially hitting a wall.

The shadows wrapped around Jackie, trapping her in place.

Taboo skidded back several metres, making large grooves in the dirt. The shadows followed her and wrapped around her paws, jaw and neck, holding her in place so she couldn't attack.

Taboo tossed her head to try and break the shadows, but the stretched and tugged her back into place as Lupine stalked over to who he saw as the cause of his current pain.

Jackie.

"I will rip you apart." Lupine growled, without much energy. In truth he was exhausted while his various opponents didn't seem to tire, probably because they kept swapping out.

The shadows tightened around Jackie, lifting her up and starting to slip through the gaps in her armour, tightening around important parts of her body, like her neck.

"I will tear you to pieces." He continued. "Until no one can tell that the lumps of flesh were once human."

"Really?" Jackie choked. "You look too tired to jump right now."

Lupine was dripping dark red blood everywhere, and he was staggering around a bit. However his concentration remained steady as the shadows obeyed their master.

Jackie's vision was going dark as the area around her started frosting over, however, the fight in the centre was making it too hot to really form anything more than that in such a large area.

Jackie gathered her own concentration and formed a shaky dagger in mid air, which she flung at Lupine.

He yelped as it dug into one of his many open wounds and the shadows slackened on both Descendant and ice tiger.

Jackie gasped for air and coughed as Lupine staggered away. With a couple of wriggles the shadows dispersed and Jackie dropped to the ground, still coughing and gulping in air.

Taboo was also wriggling free, but before she was properly free, Lupine pulled one last, desperate trick.

Shadows rushed towards Jackie, but instead of wrapping around her, they surrounded her, plunging everything into darkness.

Jackie started to get up, but it was like trying to move through thick treacle, and suddenly she recognised what this attack was.

She formed another ice shard and threw it out, but it seemed to miss its mark as the area only got darker.

Red glowing eyes appeared in front of her, slowly growing larger and she was struck by overwhelming fear and the desire to run.

Last time she had faced this attack, this is when she'd managed to get it to stop, but now it kept going as the eyes got closer. Jackie scrambled backwards as far as she could, her metal covered back quickly clanking against the earthen side of the crater.

Then the whispering started.

'Murderer' It hissed.

Jackie paused, not sure of what she was hearing.

"Murderer." She heard again, then, a little louder. "Brother killer"

Jackie shoved her hands under her visor and clapped them over her ears, legs now shaking so much that she surprised that she was still standing.

"No, I made peace with that…"

"Nine." Was the next word, it now sounded like the disembodied voice was right next to her, her hands not doing anything to block it out.

"Nine. Dead." The voice insisted and Jackie pressed her hands harder against her ears.

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

There was a pause, and Jackie warily removed her hands from her ears, not noticing how close the red eyes had gotten.

Then, with almost an amused tone.

"Nine, nine, nine. NINE!"

"STOP IT! STOP IT!" Jackie was screaming. Not this, anything but this.

"Niiiiiiine. All nine, all gone. Wonder why?"

Jackie froze, seeing those nine faces passing behind her eyes and the owner of the red eyes prepared to pounce.

Taboo for a bit could only watch the dark dome that Jackie was trapped in as Lupine approached, his mouth moving as though whispering something.

She got an idea of what was going on as Jackie's fear nearly exploded in her mind. Taboo however, didn't get a chance to do anything until Lupine had almost completely forgotten about her, utterly focused on his prey as he prepared to bite her in two.

The shadows disappeared and Taboo charged, barrelling into him and knocking him away. The shadow dome faded as the two rolled, getting a little too close to the fire fight for Taboo's liking.

Taboo and Lupine roared at each other, scrabbling, biting and rolling. Blood and melted ice peppered their part of the battle field as Taboo bought time for Jackie to recover.

The woman was fallen to a sitting position, breathing heavily and trembling as she watched Lupine and Taboo fight. It had been a long time since she had been that scared, last time that happened was when she had fought Pitch.

Let's not remember that fight now. Jackie chided herself, it was bad enough that she saw that fight when she went to sleep.

She pushed herself to her feet, feeling the various aches and pains from the long fight, the burn on her chest throbbing particularly painfully.

Taboo had her jaws locked around Lupine's throat as Lupine snapped at her head, threatening to bite off her ears. He was yelping despite the fact that his airways were cut off, and he found himself in the same position as Jackie had been in earlier, and that gave him an idea.

A loop of shadow wrapped around Taboo's middle and pulled her off Lupine with a surprised yelp. She was thrown against a nearby rock with a cracking noise, and Lupine noticed with some glee that there was now a small split across Taboo's back, and he braced himself for the co-inciding scream.

Jackie yelled as pain shot across her back, sending her staggering back into the wall as tears of pain welled up in her eyes.

It's only pain, it's only pain, it's only pain. One of Billy's old mantras came back to her. Pain was good, pain meant that she was still alive. Pain meant that she could still fight.

Jackie shoved herself off the wall as Taboo lumbered back into battle, not quite as quick as she had been. The crack in the middle of her back made it harder for her coordinate her attacks, as her hind legs suddenly seemed just a little out of sync with the rest of her.

Lupine took advantage of this as it was his turn to charge into Taboo, knocking her back and biting down on her neck.

Taboo had no airways to block, but Jackie winced as she felt her throat constrict.

"Block it!" Taboo roared. "We need to keep our injuries our own!"

It was an odd choice of phrasing, but the message got through. Jackie instead concentrated on Istapp, her fingers finding the catch that turned it into two, smaller staffs.

She flicked it and the staff split through the middle and Jackie pulled the two halves apart, adding and attaching a length of ice to each half.

Now, she had two staffs.

She ran in, turning one into a spear and launching it at Lupine's back. The ice half buried itself in Lupine back and he howled in agony, turning to face Jackie as the ice shaft broke off from the metal, the latter half clattering to the ground while leaving the former inside Lupine.

He charged and attacked to pin Jackie against the ground, but Jackie was thinking more clearly now.

She dived away and remotely covered the discarded staff half in frost, then called it to her as she threw herself under Lupine's torso.

The second piece of metal shot into Jackie's hand like she was Thor and that had been Mjolnir. Lupine, deciding that there was an easier way of doing this, dropped to the ground and lay on top of Jackie.

Jackie's visor stopped her from getting a mouthful of fur as she was forced onto her back, but by moon he was heavy!

She didn't have enough space to attack with the staffs, so tried punching him from her position.

"Get...Off!" She gasped, he was lying right on her chest. Her fists sparked with frost, turning parts of the black fur white and frosting over the blood that was threatening to drip on her visor.

Lupine had a second to savour this victory before Taboo came back, ignoring her own sudden breathlessness, and shoved him off Jackie.

Jackie took a large gulp of air, and dropped her staff as she gripped Lupine's belly fur. She had a plan.

"As usual, your plans are crazy and have many chances of going wrong." Commented Taboo, taking care not to flip Lupine over, that wouldn't help as it would take Lupine away from the Descendant currently trying to climb him like he was a Colossus.

It wasn't easy with the two snarling and grappling with each other, but Jackie made it Lupine's neck, where she clung as tight as she could.

Lupine finally noticed where she'd gone, and attempted to drop and roll on his back to crush her.

Taboo pushed him over as he tried to do that, so he staggered back into the crater wall, going up onto his hind legs and smashing his back against it, hearing the satisfying clang of metal.

Jackie was finding it harder and harder to hold on. She was so close as well, she just needed to be in touching distance of his forehead. That was the only surefire way she knew it would work.

She formed a protective shield of ice to stop anymore possible crushing injuries and Taboo also went up on her hind legs, which were still unsteady, and managed to grab enough of Lupine's fur as she fell back down to pull him down with her.

Jackie used this opportunity to crawl further up his head, to point where he could see her out of the corner of his eye.

"You irritating pest!" Lupine snarled. "Don't you give up?"

Jackie was now in position, so had no qualms answering.

"No, because giving up means death, something you haven't had to worry about in several thousand years. And I'm not up for dying yet!"

She slammed her frost covered fist into Lupine's forehead, the frost leeching off and the cold being transferred to Lupine's brain.

His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell to the ground with a thud, out cold. Pun intended.

All Mim could see was red. The reds were of different intensities, but regardless of the power she grasped by a thread, it wasn't enough. Colin's own rage was powerful, most likely due to his immediate relation to her. She needed just a bit more.

Then another red entered the picture. This was not a hot red, it was a cold red, so cold it chilled her mind, but it was enough. It was enough.

The energy surging around Colin collapsed as he regained control, as did she. All the energy was sucked in. Those watching, and or hiding received only a glimpse of the two opposite each other, before all the imploded energy surged out, as not kill the two conduits.

The force knocked everyone back and the two battling figures slumped to their knees.

Mim could taste the smoke on her tongue, burning and bitter, but vaguely sweet. The heat that had enveloped her vanished into the air as Jack wrapped his coldness around her. She could only muster the energy to say a few things.

"You're gonna burn yourself blizzard."

"I know. Whose idea was it to unleash your inner beast?" he was trying not to wince as his hands came into contact with her still hot skin. He swore he could hear sizzling.

"Mine…" she raised her eyebrows in amusement. He was funny, ya know most of the time.

"Hey, at least you held on enough not to do any real damage."

"Not sure if you noticed but we made a crater out of a field, and burned down a forest." she was laughing and coughing. Jack sat her up tossed her freshly made ice cube, which she nimbly caught and proceeded to place on her tongue.

"That's certainly going to take some work. Leave it to the Descendants?" he said.

"Oh yeah…" Mim agreed with a sly smile.

"We heard that!" all the congregated Descendants chorused with various levels of irritation. Jack and Mim had not noticed the assembly. The group was standing in various stages of awkwardness at various different levels in the crater. David had his arms crossed, Billy and Vincent lowered their eyes. Claire was speaking to Sandy, North and Bunny. Tina stared shamelessly on at them.

Jackie and Taboo were currently nowhere to be seen, although Lupine's bulk was obvious, so it was assumed they were around there somewhere. Probably recovering.

A quick look between the fire and the ice sealed the deal.

To reach paramount uncomfortableness for everyone else, they kissed right in front of them. A few coughs and whispers broke them apart, as well as Sam's cry of 'Get a room'.

"Was that necessary?" Jason inquired as he slid down the rock slope. He was carrying a pair of handcuffs that looked anything but normal. They were wider and thicker than a normal pair of handcuffs and seemed to have a faint glow, which was brightest near a small patch of black that could be glimpsed on the inside.

"Nice jewelry." Mim commented, still sitting entwined with Jack on the ground.

"Nice tech too. We took the lead they pulled out of you and had them put a minute sliver in the cuffs. The skin contact oughta keep this idiot from being to do anything other than light the candle on my next birthday cake." Jason unlatched the cuffs and was about to put them on Colin when Mim felt a surge of energy.

"Look out!"

The warning came too late. Colin's eyes opened and he drew a puck out of his pocket. The thing wasn't even on fire, but he threw it with enough energy behind it to dent Jason's armor and throw him into the slope. Jason wasn't moving, and Colin turned to advance on Jack and Mim.

"I'm still-uhmm!" Colin surged like he was about lose control again. He didn't get far as Jack slap-shot an ice puck at his head. Colin fell but he had built up the energy and it was about to blow. Mim dove past Colin and grabbed something strapped to Jason's armor.

A detonator.

"Avalanche!" She yelled as she pushed the trigger down. A few distant poofs were heard from the mountain, but nothing compared to the roar as the snow built up from the heavy storm created by Jack, Jackie and the Becks, all came rumbling down.

Dropping the detonator, Mim ran to Colin moved to flip him over. Once she could see his eyes, she used their shared control on the emotional spectrum to siphon off the energy. As the sky darkened to black and a few of the Descendants cried out, Mim released the heat in a huge wave, as the snow swallowed them all.


	43. Chapter 43

43-Just Keep Swimming

The flier's first instinct when they heard Mim's cry was; up.

Tina and Claire shot into the air, grabbing the unconscious Jason between them and lifting him out. Sally and Mitchell also grabbed as many as they could and got into the air platforms of golden sand as the snow began to swallow them, forming shields of sand above them.

They'd managed to grab Nigel, Billy and Vincent while the rest of the Descendants of Bunnymund went down, into the earth to escape the avalanche.

The Becks braced themselves and Jackie charged for Istapp and put it back together before it was lost to the avalanche.

Taboo shrank down to normal size and ran over to Jackie, the two suddenly feeling how exhausted they were as the avalanche hit.

Within seconds whoever was left in the crater was smothered in snow. The Descendants of Sandman and Nigel were pushing their way up with their sand.

The pressing snow was enough to suffocate a normal person, but those still trapped were not normal. Snow couldn't kill them anymore than air could.

Jackie cleared a space around her head to breathe properly, then started to notice the snow melting.

The deepest point of the crater was still so hot from Mim's heatwave that the snow was melting, Jackie, James, Jacob, Taboo and Lupine still inside!

The Becks were near the edge so began swimming through the snow like it was water, quickly breaking the surface and pulling themselves away.

Jackie and Taboo had further to go, and since Lupine had to go to the future, they had to pull him back up too.

Jackie was also swimming, with Taboo holding a rope of ice that looped around Lupine, following Jackie through the rapidly melting snow.

Jackie couldn't swim fast enough, and took a gulp of air as the snow around and above her turned to water, even her internal temperature wasn't enough to keep it frozen.

Instantly she struggled not to panic, images of the last time she'd been under water passing through her mind as Taboo powered on ahead, pulling a limp Lupine through the water. The water being dyed red as they went up.

Taboo broke the surface and tugged Lupine out onto the new shore. He probably had water in his lungs, but she didn't really care. Below the surface Jackie was running out of air.

She dove back under and swam back down to Jackie, whose inexperience in swimming was hampering her progress slightly. Ice was forming around her from both her instincts and her barely restrained panic and she was flailing around in a desperate attempt to swim.

Taboo grabbed the top of her backplate with her teeth and swam up, much faster that Jackie would ever be able to swim, and deposited her on dry land, where for the about the third time that day Jackie gasped for air.

She pulled herself out of the water properly and doubled over, coughing as Taboo shook off the excess water.

"You call that swimming?"

Shut up.

Jack was grateful for years back, when Mim had commandeered the help of a mermaid to teach him how to swim. Now, he struggled to rise as the water swiftly began to freeze around him. He had to make it to the surface before the ice paralyzed him.

Pushing pushing pushing, he kept breaking the ice as quickly as it formed, for a moment he could see Taboo dragging Jackie upwards, at least he hoped it was upwards.

The water between him and his beloved sky seemed bent on keeping them there in the depths.

Just as his arms were about to quit, and his mind about to blackout, he felt air kiss his face and he gulped sweet breathable air!

"When did you learn how to swim snowman?!" Jackie called out. She was standing on an ice bridge and extending her hand to the winter spirit who was treading water. The water had frozen on her, giving her the slightly odd appearance of having a layer of ice over her body.

Jack spluttered water but managed to get something out about mermaids. Jackie ignored it for the most part as she pulled him out.

North had easily swam to the surface, he had been in worse, wetter situations. He recalled a time when he had been tossed, tied up, into the Bering Strait. Well a little water was not going to stop Nikolas St. North!

Bunny had tunnelled to safety and had popped fast enough to see the avalanche settle, and to see it melt.

The fliers were high above the scene, as usual, plucking Sally, who had been caught mid-ascent, and Mitchell who had difficulties swimming with an injured foot, from the waters.

"Ah! The water's freezing!" Mitchell was shivering. The Descendants of Frost all laughed.

Once the snow had started melting Mim shifted to her water form, floating upwards a bit. She looked down to see that Colin was still in the crater. He wasn't moving and precious air bubbles were escaping from his mouth.

He had messed with her family, old and new, and yet, leaving him to drown didn't feel right.

Swishing her mermaids tail she swam back down, grabbed the handcuffs, hooked her hands under his armpits and swam back up, her tail making light work of the job.

She broke the surface and Colin gasped as air entered his lungs, coughing violently.

While he was recovering she snapped the handcuffs on his wrists and started swimming backwards towards the shore.

Once she could feel the ground under her fin, she went back to her normal form and stepped out into what was left of the snow covered plain, dropped Colin unceremoniously onto the ground.

He staggered back to his feet, sopping wet. His scorched, white bangs flopped into his eyes as he walked away from the water.

"Mim!"

Jack was first over as he pulled his girlfriend into a hug. "Are you alright?" He asked.

"Fine blizzard, just fine."

Unbeknownst to them, Colin had staggered far enough away from the shore to get a good view had what had gone down.

The snow had covered everything, smothering the forest fire as well. He could see the small army scattered around in various groups, some were popping out of the ground, others were landing, a couple were getting ice off them, a few were just standing around and someone was getting pulled out of the water.

No one seeming to notice that he was around.

His eyes landed on the hugging couple nearby. Mimic. He felt his rage spike, even though his power was blocked by the stupid handcuffs, his rage was overwhelming.

"ARRHHHHH!"

Mim broke out of Jack's hug to see Colin charging at them like a rampaging bull. She prepared to stop him, but Bunny had heard the yell and was over in seconds, grabbing the raging teen around the middle.

"Oh no ya don't ya little bugger." Bunny growled as Colin continued to rage. It was like he wasn't human anymore.

Mim looked at her nephew, annoyed. "That's what I get for pulling you out of the water?"

He growled, actually growled like he'd turned into Taboo and glared at Mim. She took a step back in surprise, instead of the rainbow his eyes were normally, they were now blood red.

Jack also saw it.

"What happened to him?"

Mim looked over at the boy being held back by a calm Bunny, not all fazed by his struggles. All of the training that had been imbedded in Colin's brain he didn't use, because he either didn't remember or wasn't thinking. Despite everything, Mim felt a small, very small, stab of pity.

"He's been overwhelmed by his rage."


	44. Chapter 44

44-So… Now What?

Jackie looked at the flailing Colin, struggling against the Pooka, who held him like his arms were steel bands. Colin could kick and writhe, but his fire was held back by the lead lined handcuffs. He growled and seemed to bite at anyone who looked at him for too long.

"Will he be okay, you know, with the rage thing?" Jackie asked. Now that he was powerless from a Descendant point of view, she was less worried about approaching. Even if he couldn't produce any actual flame, the air around him was still warmer than she she cared for. She kept her distance.

"Can I bite him?" Taboo asked, now with a restored back.

"No. You'd melt" Jackie answered. Her words broke most of the people around out of the stupor that come over the group. Most were occupied catching their breath, binding injuries and some even lying down to rest.

"You could freeze him first." she whined.

"No!" Said Jackie, even firmer.

"He'll get over it. The anger won't last forever." Mim had her hands on her hips. Jack had his hands on her hips too, but Jackie was selectively ignoring that fact.

"Well we can't move him like this, I didn't think to bring tranquilizers, they don't harm Lupine." Jason was taking off sections of his armor, mostly the chestplate where Colin had dented it inwards. He was wearing a maroon long sleeve shirt underneath, arms crossed in contemplation.

"I'll see what I can do."

Jackie saw the black and white Guardian detach herself from Jack and make her way eye-to-eye with the mad Descendant.

"No let me." she thought. Only when Mim turned and looked at her did Jackie turn red, realizing she had spoken aloud.

"Well done." Taboo was giving her the tiger side-eye look.

"Like you could've done better." She said to the tiger. The Guardians heard the full conversation, but everyone else just heard it one sided. Jackie was sure that Claire or Jason thought she had an imaginary friend, or was completely bonkers. That was coming from someone related to a supposed children's story.

Jackie made particular care to avoid looking in Colin's eyes. She wasn't pushing her luck on the experimental handcuffs.

She did sneak a glance at the bright red irises...as she clocked him over the head with Istapp. His head smacked to the side before dropping to his chest. Bunny hefted the limp body over his shoulder like he was a sack of potatoes.

"Well what are we doin' 'ere? Let's go!" Vincent slapped his hands on his knees and stood up. There were a few titters and some nods before Mim proclaimed in loud voice:

"I'm going who's coming with me?"

This got a few more solid agreements. She grabbed Vincent by the front of the shirt, and yanked him over to her.

"Make me a tunnel?" she said making her eyes a compliant pale pink. Vincent's eyes turned pink and he tapped open a tunnel. But after doing so she looked in his eyes again, with her rainbow eyes, and undid the emotional control.

"Wha-" Vincent looked at his family who was dying with laughter. "Hey!"

He stared at the much shorter Guardian, before withering under Claire's stern gaze.

"Sorry Miss Mimic."

"It's okay Vincent, you just need to work on your big boy voice." she reached and pat his cheek patronizingly and then jumped down the tunnel, followed by Bunny, Billy, Jack, North, Sandy, Claire and Tina, Tooth plus her fairies, and Jason, who helped Mitchell, and Nigel and Sally. The Descendants of Bunnymund made their own tunnels and raced back to headquarters.

Jackie had Sam leave hers open.

Looking out at what had before been a bloody scene, what she saw was a tranquil lake. The mountains blocked the sun, bringing the early twilight. She could hear the throbbing noise of helicopters as everyone else in the world was getting up to speed, but overall, it was quiet.

At least she wouldn't have to clean everything up.

"Are you COMING?" Taboo's voice vibrated in her skull.

"I'm coming, I'm coming, keep your fur on!" Jackie made sure her prescription visor was secure in her face before jumping down Sam's tunnel.

She met Taboo at the exit and walked out into the Main Cavern, where Jason was waiting.

As she walked Jackie felt the repercussions of the fight, she was close to dropping and her body ached from being knocked around in the crater.

"Jackie, there you are." Said Jason. "Everyone else is getting seen to in the Medical Cavern, and I suggest you head there as well. Colin and Lupine are in the cells right now, neither have woken up."

Jackie smirked. "Lupine's going to be out for a good 24 hours. I gave him a strong enough brain freeze."

"I am not going to envy either of them when they wake up. And, we're essentially waiting on Tempro now" Jason shook his head. "Anyway, Medical Cavern, and I want you to handle the de-briefing."

Jackie groaned. "Do I have to? I handled the one from the tunnels!"

"And you can handle this one. You need to get to used to it."

"Fine." Jackie remembered something. "Oh, there were some helicopters moving in at the fight scene, possibly news crews."

"I'll handle that. I'll get some of our hackers on it and see if we need to mess with anything."

Jackie nodded, the fact that HOG had hackers didn't surprise her.

Jason placed a hand on Jackie's shoulder. "I'll take Istapp down if you want. I've already agreed to take down Barbary." At Jason's other hip was the sabre that Claire had been using, not that she had ever had a chance to use it.

Jackie reluctantly took the sheath off her shoulder and handed it to Jason.

"You do get attached to these, don't you?" Jason asked knowingly.

"You could say that."

Jason nodded. "Go on, Medical Cavern."

Jackie nodded and walked over to the Medical Cavern, her right leg forcing her to limp there.

Jason watched her go, and chuckled to himself. It was odd, without her glasses, Jackie looked an awful lot like Jack Frost.

Once in she saw that Jason hadn't been kidding. The entire group, including the Guardians, much to Jackie's amusement, were being looked over by Medics.

Bunnymund in particular was looking very put out by all of this, but overall wasn't protesting, just glaring at everyone.

"Frau Davies! You decided to show up."

Herr Hans, who had been one of the Medics that had seen to Mim earlier, was the closest available Medic to Jackie. Oh, how she loved messing with this guy.

"Hey doc."

His eyebrows scrunched as he sighed." I have told you, please do not call me 'doc'." He said in a German accent.

"Sure, doc."

Herr Hans sighed, but didn't press it any further.

"Armour off, let's have a look."

Jackie obliged, but quickly remembered that she had lost her glasses in the fight, as once the helmet was off, her vision became a world of blurry colours.

She shoved the helmet back on and Herr Hans chuckled.

"You are quite safe vithout it on."

"I like being able to see."

"I need to look at your head and neck, so it needs to come off. Zwei Minuten, promise."

Jackie kept her grip on the helmet, before giving in and lifting it off.

Herr Hans was as quick as he promised, until he reached the back of her head.

"Hmm."

"Hmm what?"

"Does it hurt vhen I do zis?" Herr Hans poked the back off her head and Jackie sucked in air through her teeth.

"I vill take that as a 'ja'."

Herr Hans placed a bit of gauze on the back of Jackie's head and wrapped it in a bandage.

"It's not bad. Scalp vounds always look vorse than zey are."

Jackie had to frown to try to remember when she had gotten hit in the head. It could have happened at any point really.

The rest of the exam went quickly as Jackie put the helmet back on, which made Taboo laugh.

"Oh man, you look ridiculous with just that on."

Jackie shot her a look as Herr Hans announced his findings.

"Bruising mainly. Lungs a little affected by smoke inhalation, burn is looking better. Overall, you'll live."

"Thanks doc." Said Jackie standing up, and Herr Hans frowned.

"Vhatever. Try not to get into trouble for at least ein veek. Take it easy on combat training, and I vill tell your Branch leader zat, your idea of going easy and mine are sehr different."

It was Jackie's turn to frown.

"Do not even try Frau Davies." Herr Hans waved a finger in her face, "I am a Doktor, you are not."

"Fine. I'll try to take it easy."

"I suppose zat is the best I can get out of you." Herr Hans shook his head before chivvying his hands.

"Go on, off vith you! You have vork to do no doubt, and so do I!"

"See you later doc!" Jackie called as she left with Taboo in tow.

"For the last time-!"

Jackie chuckled to herself as she left and went to the Sleeping Quarters to get her glasses. She was still shattered, but felt a little more energised after teasing poor Herr Hans.

"Jackie, there you are."

Jackie stifled a tired groan as Tracey came over. "What are you after Tracey?"

Tracey folded her arms. "I was going to put you through the wringer about leadership responsibilities, but, I think this time what you did was appropriate."

Tracey poked Jackie in the chest, making her wince from the burn. "However, you aren't off the hook with me. You can't keep galavanting off, people here need you."

"I have less than twenty people under me."

"That isn't the point." Tracey shook her head and backed off. "You're too stubborn and too tired. You'll listen to reason sure, but you won't act on it. Not yet."

"What are you on about?"

"People don't always need you to come charging in, guns blazing. But I have a feeling you'll have to learn that the hard way."

Tracey began to walk away. "I'm going back to my pack. I have no desire to be around with him in the basement."

Without another word Tracey sank into the shadows, with Jackie boring holes in the back of her head.

After dumping her armour and putting on her spare glasses, Jackie collected a pen, a notepad and a dictaphone. Everything she was going to need to get everyone's version of events recorded as part of the de-briefing.

In this state, she would be lucky if she could stay awake.

As she pushed her door shut she heard someone cough.

Her head shot up from its slumped position to see Claire standing in front of her purple door.

"You look tired." Was all she said.

"That obvious?" Jackie was too tired to even deny it.

Claire's eyes scanned what Jackie was holding and raised an eyebrow. "Jason's got you doing the de-briefing hasn't he?"

"Watch out Sherlock Holmes, you've got competition."

Claire ignored the comment and asked a seemingly out of the blue question.

"How often do you have caffeine?"

"...Never, if I can help it." Caffeine was usually in things like tea, and coffee, both drinks too hot for Jackie.

Claire reached inside her pocket, pulled out a tub, opened it and offered its contents to Jackie. Inside were a lot of uniform, inconspicuous white tablets.

"Caffeine supplements, should keep you awake for a while."

"So that's how you do it." Said Jackie, hand hovering over the tub.

"Only take one. I'd normally say two or three, but I have a feeling you wouldn't sleep for days if you did that."

Taboo's eyes went wide in panic. "I did not need to imagine that. And it's terrifying."

"Gee, thanks Taboo." Said Jackie dryly, taking one of the tablets and chucking it in her mouth.

"Gah! Tastes disgusting."

"Should keep you awake." Claire put the lid back on the tub as Jackie swallowed, shuddering and resisting the urge to gag.

"What is going on now?!"

Jackie, Taboo and Claire froze at the voice, turning in near unison to see Calvin nearby, not looking happy, and they turned back to each other, their faces full of equal horror.

They'd forgotten to tell Mim about the Loutens!

"I'll go do it." Said Jackie quickly. "I'm on my way out anyway."

She speed walked past Calvin, feeling oddly energetic, with the bizarre desire to skip. She'd never skipped before in her life! But, she had the energy for it.

Taboo followed behind, more than a little scared.

"What the hell did Claire give Jackie?!"


	45. Chapter 45

45-Reunion

Mim was in the Medical Cavern with the rest of the Guardians. Despite everything that had happened, she had made it out with only a few scratches. She had a pretty deep cut down her arm from the tunnel collapse. It had torn all the way down her sleeve, so instead of leaving it there, she just ripped the sleeve off.

An eager young Medic showed up to examine her. He was older than her physically, and he was clearly clueless.

"Hey, nice battle scars, mind if I check them out?" he looked at the rainbow eyes.

Mim looked over at Jack who was getting some burn treatment on his hands. Looking back at the young Medic, who was only making a fool of himself.

"Don't touch me." she raised an eyebrow and brushed him off casually.

"Hey, don't be so quick to dismiss, I'm a doctor, this is what I do." he held up his stethoscope for emphasis.

"Whaddya know? We've got a Dougie Howser over here!"

Jackie had come up behind him and made him jump.

"Ah! H-Head Davies." His eyes turned to the ice tiger. "A-a-and Taboo." Like with most people, being confronted with a tiger made of ice gave him the willies. "How can I help?"

"Leave the diagnosis to someone else. I can still see your acne."

The Medic turned beet red and hurried away to look at Sally's injuries instead. Jackie came up to Mim, who was now being bandaged up by a female doctor.

"James Bond reference?" Asked Mim.

"You picked up on it!" Jackie grinned manically.

"Yeah." Mim was slightly unnerved by the wideness of the grin. "Anything you need?"

"Oh! Right! Back in the tunnels, we did get your parents out. They've been here the entire time."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier!?" Mim suddenly looked as hyper as Jackie, not in a good way.

"Got wrapped up in things, like a mummy."

Taboo growled and Jackie got back on topic.

"Right, they don't know Calvin's here and vice versa, wondering if you wanted them to know, or something."

"Yeah totally, I'll go, and stuff..." she waved the Medic off gently. She eyed the woman warily, as she seemed to be vibrating.

"Are you okay?" Mim asked.

"Yeah! Great! Never felt better!" Jackie was talking faster with every word. "I feel kinda jazzed, is that a thing people say? It sounds cool."

"I don't-"

"Or pumped, maybe, energised works!"

"Jackie-"

"I think the term is 'hyper'."

"I'm not hyper!" Defended Jackie, practically bouncing up and down.

"And I'm a poodle."

"Oh boo, lighten up!" Jackie was still grinning and tossing a pen between her fingers, which was frosting over slightly. Meanwhile Mim was moving back warily.

"Haven't you got something to do?" Mim asked.

"Oh yeah! De-briefing. Later!"

Jackie left, walking at a worryingly brisk pace for someone who had a bandage around their head and got thrown around like a ragdoll less than an hour ago. All the while looking like she was trying to achieve liftoff.

Taboo stayed behind for a minute and looked at Mim.

"Help."

"What happened to her?"

"Claire gave her a caffeine supplement to wake her up for de-briefing."

"How much did she have?!"

"One."

"Only one?!"

"Jackie's not used to caffeine, at all."

"Uh oh."

"You said it." Taboo looked at the doorway back to the Main Cavern. "I'd better make sure she's not bouncing off the walls."

Taboo ran off and Mim made a silent promise to never let Jackie near energy drinks.

Leaving the Medical Chamber, Mim went to the Sleeping Chambers. After a pit stop with Claire to find out what rooms they were all in and one with Jason for a slight favor, Mim took a deep breath and made a tiny outfit change…

Mrs. Louten was sitting on one the beds lining the walls, on the phone with her husband. They talked in quiet voices, soothing one another, and discussing possible theories on their circumstances. The woman heard a knock on the wall, next to the purple curtain which still somehow worked as an effective door and put the phone down. The people here had given her a phone to communicate between her and her husband, and her husband only.

"Come in?" the woman said tentatively. With all that had happened, she wasn't sure whether or not to trust these people. They had saved her from a monster, but she feared a worse fate.

A young lady walked in. She had dark brown hair and eyes, and wore glasses. She was in a medic coat, with the symbol on it that Mrs. Louten had been seeing everywhere.

"Mrs. Louten, we need to relocate you for a little while. Please come with me." The woman's voice was soft and calm. There was something comforting about it.

"Can I please see my husband? Call home? Tell them I'm okay?" Sylva Louten rattled off the most important questions. There were a multitude more waiting in the wings.

"That will not be necessary at the moment." the lady said. She held a clipboard, and a pen was tucked behind her ear. She brushed a few stray hairs that had fallen out of her high ponytail.

Mrs. Louten couldn't help but feel like these little things were out of a dream. Maybe this whole thing was a dream and she would wake up. Goodness knows she'd had weirder. She stood up and followed the medical lady, down past many, many doors, up stairs and through hallways, until they reached a room with many long tables, and few small ones.

"Please take a seat." she suggested. Mrs. Louten had nothing better to do than comply. The medic walked to the long metal bench along the wall and returned a few moments later with a plate of food. Mrs. Louten had been rejecting food from these people under the paranoia it might be poisoned, but now she accepted and she didn't know why.

"I shall return in a moment, please remain here." she said, nodded and left.

Mrs. Louten had the feeling that leaving wasn't an option and that trying would be futile. She knew Mr. Louten was here somewhere and she was prepared to wait for him. If anything had happened to him, then she would try to escape, but not until.

She absent-mindedly ate in the silence.

The plate was nearly empty when the young lady returned with her husband. Mrs. Louten stood and went to hug her spouse. They were exchanging a few words when the young lady politely cleared her throat.

"Have a seat." she repeated. After returning with another plate of food for Mr. Louten, she bid them to eat once more and departed. The pair wondered why she was leaving as they swapped stories. They had little to tell. Four walls, lots of beds, a blocked curtain and not much else. Mr Louten compared where they had been to barracks.

"Why do you think they brought us here?" Mr. Louten bounced the question back for the upteenth time.

"Well, they saved us, maybe it's a special branch of the armed forces."

"Are they American?" Mrs. Louten continued her train of thought.

"They sound American but that's no guarantee." Mr Louten remembered the Australian who had initially led them out of the tunnels. He was also pretty sure there had been a British person at some point.

The discussion went on and on. Were they imprisoned, or under protection? Were these allies or foes? Was anyone looking for them? It had been nigh on a week. But neither could sure, their sleep had been erratic and this place had no windows with which to keep time.

"So maybe we are underground?" Mr. Louten said.

"Or just in a windowless facility." his wife countered. The two had settled on calling it a facility since the people were so formal, and there were medics around. The few people they had seen had been polite, if somewhat curious looking. Super tall and athletic, large and strong, thin as a stick, short and stocky, one woman even had a hump under her coat!

Then there was the armour. The visors had hidden their faces at the time, but who went around in armour like that?

And of course there was the man in red. Their heads felt a little fuzzy when they thought about him.

The young lady was gone for a much longer period of time now, but when she returned she was leading...their son.

"Calvin!"

The parents ran to embrace their college boy. After the family, or what was left of it had reunited and gone through the expected "Why are you here!" and "Are you okay?" the lady had gained another plate of food for Calvin.

"Have a seat" she said for the third time.

The group complied and this time the lady joined them in a chair of her own. Facing them with her hands neatly folded, she set down the clipboard.

"We apologize for the lack of information available to you through this ordeal." she began. Before she continued, Mrs. Louten interrupted, holding tight to Cal's hand, who was between his parents.

"Who exactly is 'we'?" she inquired.

"They're-" Calvin began but the lady efficiently cut him off.

"We are an independent global protection agency, tasked with maintain world order in specific areas." it was well done. The giving of information while still saying absolutely nothing. She gave Calvin an imperceivable look that rendered him silent.

"The event involving your kidnapping was completely random, and we would like to assure you that it will not affect you beyond this point." the lady sounded completely confident, but Mr. Louten was skeptical.

"Does this mean we are being released?" he asked.

"Shortly, yes, at the moment no we have something we need to discuss." the lady flipped a few papers on the clipboard. She didn't remove any of them, but her thumb brushed the edge repeatedly.

"They know about Nym!" Calvin blurted out. The lady stiffened.

"Calvin!" Mrs. Louten looked at her son in disbelief. "You're talking nonsense."

"It's been years." his father said.

"Ask them!" Calvin motioned to the lady who had been silent as all this progressed.

"We are aware of the incident." the lady had not accounted for this. She was formulating answers to possibly difficult questions.

"What does that mean? A suicide has nothing to do with global safety." his mother's eyes glistened at the thought of going through this type of pain again.

The lady was aware that Calvin knew about HOG. She would be unable to lie.

"It has more to do with it than you think." the said finally after staring into the fretting eyes for what seemed like an eternity.

After a few more tense moment, the lady unclipped something from the clipboard.

"I am supposed to deliver some things to you." she handed an envelope to Mr. Louten and sat patiently as he opened it. Inside was a letter, of course.

_Dear Mommy, Daddy and Cal,_

_I know it was hard, having to let me go like that. I did miss you a lot, I still do sometimes. I remember the happy times at our summer home, with Aunt Joanna, and Uncle Rob. I wrote this to tell you that I'm okay, and I'm happy. I found a great guy, who takes care of me, and we are very happy. I have nice job and lots of friends and I love what I do. I may try and see you, but I don't know how it'll work out. Things are complicated now, but I'm still me and I'm sure that you're still you. I love you and I have enclosed something to help remind you that no matter what I'm still your baby girl! I love you love you love you!_

_-Nym Louten._

Tears streamed down the faces of the parents, and Cal looked utterly confused. The letter was dated just a few months ago. and attached to the letter was a picture of Nym. Brown hair, brown eyes, loose ponytail and glasses, pen tucked behind her ear like always.

"This associate of mine will show you out." the medic announced after an appropriate amount of silence. Jason walked in, although the Loutens didn't know his name. Leading them out, he mentioned something that they would not be allowed to tell anyone about the facility or the organization.

The Medic sighed. She could have hugged them. But it was too late now. Jason would do his thing and that would be that. But they knew she was okay. That is what mattered.

Jackie had calmed down a bit as the de-briefing dragged. She was still inadvertently frosting things, usually her pen as she scribbled down what was being said.

I am never taking one of those again. She swore.

Taboo thanked any deity that might have been listening.

Finally the last group disappeared from the Council Chamber and Jackie sighed, tipping back in her chair. She was glad that was over, especially with David Osbourne. He didn't like her and the feeling was mutual. The entire room had been charged with tension as they went passive aggressive as they talked, with David commenting on the amount of snow and Jackie on the cave in. While the rest of the Osbournes and Richard watched. That had been, interesting.

She was still awake at least, which was something. She'd probably hang around until Lupine and Colin had been dealt with, then disappear off home. Maybe she could buy pizza to make up for disappearing again.

Taboo's head moved to the doors as she picked up new voices from outside, and she started growling. She didn't trust the new voices.

Jackie hadn't heard the voices, but could guess why Taboo was growling.

"Get a grip, I'll go see what it is."

She got up from her chair, walking normally now, went over to the double doors and pushed one of them open slightly.

On their way to the Departure Cavern were Mr and Mrs Louten and Calvin, the trio talking animatedly as Jason led them out.

Jackie quickly closed the door. She didn't want any of the non Descendants to see her. Calvin may want to say something, and Mr and Mrs Louten might recognise her from Lupine's den. Wow, that felt like ages ago, but it couldn't have been any more than a week or so.

Jackie remembered that Jason was there. Good, chances were the three Loutens wouldn't quite remember how they got from the base to their house.

She sat back down in her chair and looked over the notes she'd written. Her normally loopy handwriting had turned into an untidy scrawl as she'd rushed to get everything down. She just had to pass that and the dictaphone off to the Scribes for them to write up and add to the files.

She started clarifying some of the more illegible parts of her handwriting when Taboo suddenly stood up, her tail twitching and her head tilted to the side.

"What's up now?"

"Downstairs, something's up downstairs."

"How far down? There's at least five floors."

"Right at the bottom."

Jackie swore and sprinted out of the Council Chamber, knocking over her chair and leaving her stuff where it was. Bottom floor was cells.

Which was were Colin and Lupine were.


End file.
